


Personganronpa

by SquirreLJ



Series: Personganronpa [1]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Persona 5
Genre: Crossover, F/M, Fan Killing Game (Dangan Ronpa), Murder Mystery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-16
Updated: 2019-11-11
Packaged: 2020-05-12 15:01:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 187,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19231498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SquirreLJ/pseuds/SquirreLJ
Summary: Gale Rovere was supposed to transfer into Hope's Peak Academy as the Ultimate Adventurer. Instead, he wakes up trapped in a killing game alongside his fellow students! With the help of his classmates, including the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, Gale must solve one mystery after another if he hopes to survive!





	1. Prologue: Welcome [A]board

Hope’s Peak Academy—to call the school a beacon of hope would be an understatement. The grand facility is more like a lighthouse that beckons the general public toward a hopeful future. The school has no entrance exams; students are only admitted if they are scouted for their incredible talent. These gifted juveniles are called “Ultimates” and are often considered celebrities throughout Japan. They say if you are scouted for Hope’s Peak Academy and manage to graduate, you’ll be set for life.

My name is Gale Rovere, and I’m the Ultimate Adventurer. I was born in Siena, Italy, but my parents and I moved to the Middle East when I was still young. My dad was a journalist, but when he was killed in the line of work, my mom and I moved to Germany with her family. After some years of school in Germany, we moved to America for my mom’s work. I finished middle school in the States, and my mom died soon after. My grandparents arranged for me to move in with my aunt, who teaches English in Japan, and I started high school near Ikebukuro. After two years of high school, I received an invitation to transfer to Hope’s Peak Academy as a third-year.

Even though I would only attend the school for a year, I was offered the chance to graduate with the same prestige as those who’d been selected earlier on. Apparently, accepting third-year students as transfers into Hope’s Peak was unheard of until this year, but one class lost six of sixteen students in a single semester last year. When I looked online, I found that two of the six students had died, two had been expelled, one had gone missing, and the sixth had transferred to a prestigious school in France. The string of incidents was so uncanny that online rumors started to call the class cursed.

Of course, it’ll take more than baseless rumors to kill my mood. There’s no way something like a curse actu̸͔̞͇̿͐̔͂̓̏̏̋͘a̶͈̱͙̮͈͗͜l̷̳̯̮̺͙̮̤̤̪͇͙̂̽́͂̋̽͊̓̑̋͘l̸̛̝̟̦͍̽̅ͅy̶̥̞̥̹̘̬͍̓̓͛͌̽̾̆̂̇̅̓̈́͜ e̷͕͍̻͐͆̄̎̑̃̐ͅx̷̧̬̹̠̩͓̠̪̗̦͚̋̃̍̈́̔̒̋̐̚i̴̬̊͂s̷̛̺͇̝̱̘͈̩͈̯̟͉̲̊͑̆̈́͜ẗ̷̥̺̫̥̖̮̩̰̲̳̤̠́s̶̡̛̩͈̜͙̰̖͊̈̏͂̍͊̈́̈́͑——————

* * *

_Where am I? Is the room spinning, or is that just my head? No, “spinning” isn’t the right word. Everything feels like it’s swaying back and forth. It’s like the world is tilted on its axis._

“Hey,” a voice interrupted my thoughts. I rose from a hammock that was hung between two walls in a cubic, white room that, aside from the hammock, was only furnished with a circular end table topped with a brightly-colored drink in a glass decorated with a tropical umbrella.

“Are you Gale Rovere?” the voice asked. As I blinked awake, my vision focused on a man in his mid-to-late thirties with scruffy sideburns and spiky, black hair. He wore a dark blue suit accentuated with a silver-gray tie and brass buttons of various geometric shapes.

“Yeah,” was the only reply I could manage in my dazed state.

“I don’t expect much, so no pressure, but how much do you remember before right now?” the man asked.

“I… I was transferring to Hope’s Peak, and then…”

“Figures,” the man sighed, “the other transfers said the same. The rest just remember getting ready to start the year.”

I gripped my head in both hands and tried to quell my headache and nausea. “Who are you?” I asked.

“The name’s Shigekazu Kudo, but call me Kudo-sensei. I’m the homeroom teacher for your class. Come on. Let’s introduce you to the others.” The unkempt man extended a worn but sincere hand, and he helped me stand from the hammock. He escorted me through the blank room’s singular door, and a trio of faces awaited us outside.

The three were students around my age. The first was a brunette girl who wore her hair in a neat bun. Her green eyes were stern, but her smile was kind nonetheless. She wore a white, button-down shirt with wide sleeves and a particularly angular collar. A pastel-pink pencil skirt covered the tops of her black, thigh-high socks, and black heels raised her spectacled gaze to the same height as mine.

The second student was a boy with shoulder-length hair that had been dyed platinum blonde. He wore a white suit with gold accents that matched his hair, and his crystal-blue eyes peered warmly over a comforting smile. The boy cocked his head to the side and offered a friendly wave, and I noticed his hands were covered by thin, black gloves.

The final student was another girl. She had silver hair and wore a pink, pleated shirt with a white ribbon tied around her collar. She also wore a skirt, but hers was black and a little shorter. She had a pair of lacy, white socks under black, buckled shoes. The girl wore her hair down, but it was kept out of her face by a pink hairband that held a gold, floral pin over the side of her forehead.

“You three should have waited with the others,” Kudo-sensei sighed.

“With all due respect, Sensei,” the spectacled girl replied curtly, “my pride as president would not allow me to sit back idly while one of my classmates was still unaccounted for.”

“It really didn’t sit right with me either,” the platinum-haired boy chuckled. “As a fellow transfer student, I can imagine how confusing this must all be for him.”

The silver-haired girl stepped forward. “You won’t mind if I ask how much you remember, will you?” she inquired.

“I already checked,” Kudo-sensei stepped in. “He’s even more lost than the rest of us.”

“That’s certainly inconvenient,” the platinum-haired boy seemed to ponder aloud. “Oh, forgive me. Where are my manners? My name is Shiro Hatori. I’m the Ultimate Moral Compass. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Shiro extended his gloved hand, and I managed to straighten my posture and accept his firm yet warm handshake.

“My name is Hikari Yamamoto, Kari for short,” the brunette girl added with an extended hand, “but most of our classmates just call me Pres. I’m the Ultimate Student Council President, you see.” The president extended her hand, and I accepted her greeting as well.

“I’m Lucille Wridge,” the silver-haired girl finished. “If what I’ve heard about you is true, you’re from America as well, correct? I believe we should be able to get along then.” I shook Lucille’s hand and nodded politely.

“I’m Gale Rovere,” I introduced myself. “If you’re all Ultimates,” I wondered aloud, “does that make you students at Hope’s Peak?”

“You’re one too, y’know,” Kudo-sensei added with a deep chuckle. “You transferred in as the Ultimate Adventurer, remember?”

“Right, sorry,” I looked down as I tried to contain another dizzy spell. “Everything about the transfer is just…”

“We can’t remember how we arrived either,” Shiro said. “There’s no need to worry. Take all the time you need to regain your composure.”

“There’s a chance this is some kind of test posed by the school’s faculty,” claimed the president. “We should remain calm in case we are being evaluated in secret.”

“I already told you kids it’s nothing like that,” Kudo-sensei groaned.

“No offense, Sensei,” Lucille retorted, “but you wouldn’t tell us if it were.”

“Yes, I suppose doing so would compromise the integrity of the exam,” Shiro concluded.

“You three are too well-behaved for your own good,” Kudo-sensei groaned. “C’mon, let’s regroup with the others and figure out our next move.”

The four of us followed Kudo-sensei down a hall that eventually opened into a grand auditorium. The area looked like a concert hall, complete with an elevated, semicircular stage against one wall and rows of cushioned seats facing toward it. Five students waited idly in an aisle between the seats that led down a small staircase toward the stage. They seemed to be chatting amongst themselves and shifting around nervously. As I approached them, I took a moment to absorb all of their appearances:

Standing in the center was a herculean, dark-skinned woman with biceps larger than my head. Her black hair was woven into a pair of pigtails that rested over the fronts of her shoulders, and her brown eyes stared nervously down at her fidgeting hands. She wore a black and white uniform that included athletic shoes, a short skirt, and a sleeveless top featuring Hope’s Peak Academy’s crest.

Chatting with her was an androgynous student wearing black slacks and a white lab coat. Goggles rested loosely around the student’s neck, and their hands were covered with yellow rubber gloves. Their dark hair had been shaved down to practically nothing, and the top of the student’s head didn’t even reach their colossal friend’s massive shoulders.

Sitting in a chair on the end of the row next to them were a pair of students who seemed to be arguing about something superficial. The boy sat in the chair and accentuated a few of his points with hardy laughs and hushed snickers. His short, brown hair was complimented by a full, perfectly-trimmed beard that wrapped around the whole of his jaw. He wore a militaristic uniform complete with a red tie, a number of medals, and tasseled shoulder pads.

In the boy’s lap sat his competitor, a tall woman with pointed features, narrow glasses, and dark hair in a high ponytail. She wore a navy dress with white stripes, and her nails were painted a lighter shade of blue. A pair of rose-shaped earrings decorated her lobes. She tapped her foot impatiently and would occasionally tilt her head skyward to groan at something her partner had said.

Standing behind the others was a girl with faded green hair styled into shoulder-length curls. Turquoise eyes peeked out from behind her fluffy bangs, but her mouth was covered by a long, red scarf. Beneath the scarf, she wore a brown jacket that covered a black vest and skirt. She silently shuffled from side to side as the others talked, and she would occasionally rub her shoes together after standing still for too long.

“Where’s everyone else?” Kudo-sensei asked as we approached the group.

“I told them not to go, but does anyone ever listen to me? No, why would they?” complained the girl in her partner’s lap.

“Reiko,” Shiro started with a condescending but polite smile as he approached the couple, “such audacious public displays of affection are unbecoming of students of our caliber. Wouldn’t you agree?”

“Eh, you’re just sayin’ that cuz you’re jealous,” the bearded boy beneath Reiko snickered.

“I’m glad to see your sense of humor has not left you in this situation,” Shiro replied without lowering his friendly grin.

“No, seriously,” the president inquired curtly, “where’d everyone go?”

“The so-called transfer students wandered off on their own,” the androgynous student bit. “I’ve got a feeling they’re up to something.”

“It’s a bit early to draw that kind of conclusion,” Lucille remarked under her breath.

“Haruki and the others went a different way,” squeaked the colossal girl. “Sho-chan was screaming about doing nothing in a situation like this. I-I tried to stop them, but he gave me this look, and I got too scared to move…”

Kudo-sensei sighed, “Of course the transfer students don’t trust me in a situation like this. They have no clue who any of us are. Haruki and Shoichi are a different story though; I wish they’d just listen to me for once. Did Emiko go with them?”

“Uh-huh,” the effeminate goliath muttered.

“Well, you seem to have found the final transfer student,” the androgynous student observed. “At least all sixteen of us are accounted for. It seems curious that this incident seems exclusive to our class, however.”

“He is the transfer student, right?” the angular girl asked from atop her boyfriend’s lap.

“Yeah, that’s me,” I replied. I was finally starting to clear my head. “It’s nice to meet you all. My name’s Gale Rovere; I’m the Ultimate Adventurer.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you!” squealed the dark-skinned colossus with a giddy clap of her hands. “My name is Charlotte Kinoshita. I’m the Ultimate Cheerleader! I hope we get along!”

“I’m Kagami Jushichi,” the androgynous student said. “I’m the Ultimate Physicist. Just try not to cause us more trouble in this situation.”

“In case you were wondering, Kagami uses ze/zir pronouns,” Kari added. Her tone of presidential authority made it clear that mis-gendering the physicist would not be tolerated.

“I’m Reiko Izanami,” said the angular girl as she stood from her partner’s lap. “I’m the Ultimate Thespian. I’m honestly pretty curious about your talent. We’ll have to talk about it sometime.”

Reiko’s partner stood up after her and gripped my palm in a firm, borderline-painful handshake. “Name’s Takamaru Kazeryu, sport. I’m the Ultimate Pilot. Tell me honestly: what’s your opinion of the liquid-cooled inline V engine used by the Kawasaki Ki-61 _Hien_ in World War II?”

“Now, now, our new friend doesn’t have all day,” Shiro interjected politely.

“This here is Miaya Gekkogahara,” Kudo-sensei finished while placing a hand on the green-haired girl’s shoulder. “She doesn’t talk much, but don’t let that fool you. She’s the Ultimate Therapist.” Miaya gave a quick but polite bow in response to her sensei’s introduction.

“Alright, now that introductions are finished,” Kudo-sensei concluded, “I’m going to fetch the others. Gale, would you mind coming with me? I feel like the transfer students are more likely to listen to me if I have another transfer backing me up.”

“Perhaps I should accompany you then, Sensei,” Shiro offered.

Kudo-sensei addressed Shiro, Kari, and Lucille collectively, “You three stay behind this time. I need you to make sure nobody else goes wandering off.”

“Look, I tried, okay?” Reiko chuckled defensively.

“No, the responsibility lies with me for neglecting them,” the president remarked. “There was little you could do as outnumbered as you were.”

“Why didn’t any of you help her?” Lucille asked the others in an accusatory tone.

“Eh, I wasn’t really paying attention to be honest,” Takamaru admitted.

“What those delinquents get up to is none of my business,” Kagami scoffed.

“Um, Sho-chan scares me when he gets that way…” Charlotte mumbled nervously.

Miaya looked to the side silently to avoid eye contact as if she were embarrassed.

“No one’s at fault. We’re all under a lot of pressure here,” Kudo-sensei assured us. “C’mon, Gale. Let’s not waste any more time.”

With no reason to object, I followed Kudo-sensei down another hall. The hall’s red, carpeted floors starkly contrasted the metallic walls and ceiling. After walking in silence for a few minutes, I made an observation. “Don’t you think it’s kind of weird that there aren’t any windows?” I wondered aloud.

“This building seems rather large,” Kudo-sensei observed. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we’ve been restricted exclusively to the interior for now.”

“Um, Sensei,” I asked, “what do you mean by ‘restricted’?”

“Huh? Oh, it’s nothing,” Kudo-sensei dismissed the thought immediately, but his gaze was far off as if he were wondering something.

A subtle motion caught my eye in the shadow of the hall’s corner. _Was that a camera?_

A few minutes later, we heard a pair of voices arguing. At first, their debate seemed civil, but I was alarmed when I heard one of them suddenly shout, “What the fuck did you just say to me, you factoring delta complex?”

“Shit…” Kudo-sensei muttered before breaking into a sprint. “Hurry!” he called back to me, and I rushed behind him. We turned a corner to find two boys in a sort of scuffle. One boy wore a red vest with yellow polka-dots and long, ruffled trousers. He had orange hair and white face paint accented with a bright green star that surrounded his left eye. He was being held against the metallic wall, but he smiled gingerly down at his aggressor.

The other boy was wearing a leather jacket whose sleeves had been torn off. His torn, black skinny jeans were decorated with silver chains and a spiked belt. His black-and-green hair had been shaped to one side with an undercut that exposed a number of earrings and a pair of eyebrow piercings on the right side of his face. He grimaced at the other student over a pair of snakebite piercings, but he glanced to the side and dropped the boy when we turned the corner. As he lowered his hands, I noticed there were a number of equations tattooed over his arms.

A third student stood quietly behind the two of them as if clinging to the hall’s shadows. Her lips were coated with glistening lipstick that was jet black on one side and blood red on the other. She wore heavy eyeshadow that emphasized the pallor of her face, and straight, black hair flowed neatly over her shoulders and down the length of her black, Victorian dress. Straight bangs rested neatly over her forehead, and a pair of black-and-red hair bows decorated each side of her head.

“Well, look who came back, so I take it you found student sub-n such that n=16, huh?” the tattooed student chided.

“Hello there!” the white-faced boy enthused. “It’s such a pleasure to make your acquaintance! My name is Haruki Haruharu, but you can call me Jumbo!” The room fell silent for a moment as the boy seemed to wait for a laugh. Then he bowed deeply and gestured toward the pierced student next to him. “May I present to you Shoichi Noizu, the Ultimate Mathematician!”

“Can it, clown!” Shoichi retorted. “I told you not to call me that! My name is Noise, got that?”

“Sheesh, you two are as energetic as ever,” Kudo-sensei sighed. “You almost gave me a heart attack.”

“But of course! I am the Ultimate Circus Performer, after all!” Haruki projected.

“That variable name doesn’t suit you,” Noise criticized. “For all persons p, p knows you’re really the Ultimate Class Clown.”

The umbral girl in the back stepped out of the shadows. “I’m Emiko Sakurai, the Ultimate Vampire.”

“Your material is as comedic as ever!” Haruki complimented as he grabbed Emiko by the shoulder. “She’s actually the Ultimate Lucky Student! Everyone knows vampires don’t exist!” Emiko frowned and responded by biting his finger. Haruki held firm for a second, but he squealed and leapt away once blood started dripping down his white glove. “ _Très cruel, mon cher!”_ he cried.

“Have any of you seen the other transfers?” Kudo-sensei asked. “We need to make sure everyone’s okay before we decide what to do next.”

“Those vectors should be converging on this point shortly,” Noise answered.

As if on cue, four students turned around a different corner and approached our group. In the back were two beautiful girls: One was a blonde with large, wavy pigtails and bright blue eyes. She wore a white, blue, and red jersey over a black skirt and red leggings, and she strutted flawlessly atop brown, lace-up boots. The second peered through square bangs that reached forward from her brunette, neatly-cut hair. She wore dark leggings and a blue, white, and orange dress whose colors alternated in a tiled pattern like shogi pieces.

In the front were two equally stylish boys. The first had short, navy hair with his bangs swept fashionably over one eye. He wore a blue and gray shirt whose colors were separated horizontally by a black, diagonal stripe, and he had long, black slacks to match. The other boy stood front and center, but he looked much plainer. He had scruffy, dark hair that covered the top halves of his large, circular glasses. He wore a white button-down unbuttoned over a black undershirt, and his plain blue jeans were held up by a brown belt. Lastly, he carried a brown bag over his shoulder, and for a moment, I thought I could see movement inside before he zipped it closed.

“Ah, this explains the commotion we heard earlier,” the blue-haired boy observed.

“I’m relieved no one was hurt,” the brunette girl mentioned.

“Hey, it’s that creepy guy who says he’s our teacher again,” the blonde remarked.

“I _am_ your teacher,” Kudo-sensei groaned. “These four are the other transfer students,” he explained to me. “We should regroup with the others and plan our next move.”

The four transfer students stepped forward and introduced themselves. “You’re a transfer too then, huh?” the blonde wondered. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Ann Takamaki, the Ultimate Model. By the way, you shouldn’t stand too close to this creep. You might start to smell like him.”

“What was that?” Kudo-sensei growled.

“See what I mean?” Ann feigned a whisper.

“My name is Yusuke Kitagawa,” the blue-haired boy said in turn. “I have been dubbed the Ultimate Artist, but I do not yet believe myself worthy of such a lofty moniker.”

“I’m Hifumi Togo,” the brunette added. “I’m the Ultimate Shogi Player. I don’t suppose you’ve learned anything about our circumstances?”

I shook my head and started to answer that I hadn’t, but Ann interrupted me again as she pulled the scruffy-haired boy forward. “This here is Ren Amamiya. He’s the Ultimate Phantom Thief of Hearts!” Ren looked a bit embarrassed by her introduction, so she yanked him forward again. “Come on! Don’t be shy!”

“Nice to meet you,” Ren replied shortly.

“Wait. You’re a Phantom Thief? You mean you’re, like, one of _the_ Phantom Thieves of Hearts?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Ren replied briefly.

“Do not let him be modest,” Yusuke bragged. “He may not look it, but he is actually the leader of the esteemed Phantom Thieves of Hearts! At least he was before they disbanded.”

“Wow, you really stole people’s hearts then?” I asked. “I knew the Ultimates were supposedly celebrities, but I didn’t expect someone like you to be among them.”

“Huh? You mean you’ve never heard of me?” Ann asked in an offended tone. “I’m on, like, more than a dozen covers of Vague!”

“Perhaps you’ve seen me on the covers of shogi magazines?” Hifumi inquired.

“Uh, sorry,” I apologized, “I’m not really into those kinds of things.”

“Apologies, _mon amour_ , but your fifteen minutes of fame seem to have expired!” the Ultimate Class Clown suddenly taunted from over my shoulder. Ann took a swing at him, but her fist connected with my face instead as Haruki ducked away.

“Well, that’s everyone,” Kudo-sensei observed as I massaged my jaw and glared at my accidental attacker. “Let’s get back to the others.”

“Can we make it quick, please?” the vampiric student requested. “I don’t like crowds this large.”

The nine of us made our way back to the auditorium, where the other eight students waited and bantered amongst themselves. “There you are!” Kari scolded. “You had Reiko worried sick! You can’t just go wandering off in a situation like this!”

“Sorry, Pres,” Emiko apologized half-sincerely.

“Of course, we sought to expand our horizons unto fresh knowledge of our surroundings!” Haruki announced.

“Yes, we too thought it best to better ascertain more details given our situation,” Yusuke contributed, “yet our efforts were unsuccessful.”

“This shit’s just a labyrinth of 90° angles and those rooms we woke up in,” Noise shared.

“Ahem!” a high-pitched voice announced over an unseen loudspeaker that resonated throughout the room. “Attention, all students and faculty, please report to the auditorium at the center of the floor!”

“What was that?” Ann asked.

“Should we… know who that is?” Shiro wondered aloud.

“I-I have a bad feeling about this,” Charlotte stuttered.

“Hey! Show yourself!” Reiko demanded.

“A hidden host is quite unbecoming,” Haruki chuckled.

“Oh, hold on a second. You guys are already gathered in the hall, huh?” the high-pitched voice sounded over the loudspeaker again. “In that case, let’s get this show on the road!” A podium rose slowly from the center of the elevated stage at the focal point of the auditorium. From behind the podium, a stuffed bear flew into the air with its arms flailing. After a moment of being airborne, the creature landed atop the podium and looked toward all of us.

It was a comically designed stuffed animal with two distinct halves. Its right half was paper-white with a small, black eye on that side of its face. Conversely, the creature’s left side was pitch-black with a jagged, red eye and a wide, toothy smile. A white belly poked out from its abdomen with an exaggerated, X-shaped bellybutton, and its remaining features were rounded and relatively nondistinctive. The absurd bear’s voice sounded through a microphone on the podium. “Ahem, allow me to introduce myself. I am Monokuma, and as of today, I am your new _headmaster_!”

“What the fuck kind of joke is this?” Noise shouted down at the stage.

“Should I assume this creature is not Hope’s Peak’s usual headmaster then?” Yusuke inquired.

“No, duh!” Kagami replied. “That should be obvious even to a transfer student!”

“Sir, if you truly are this school’s headmaster, may I ask what the meaning of this is?” Shiro asked.

“It’s simple, really!” Monokuma announced. “Your lucky class has been chosen to participate in a luxury field trip! You’ve been brought here so you can embrace your basest desires and heighten your talents without the distractions of the outside world! In fact, you’re all so lucky, that you’ll be on vacation here for the rest of your lives!”

“The rest of our lives?” Lucille repeated in disbelief.

“With all due respect, Mr. Bear Thing, that sounds fucking dumb,” Takamaru replied.

“Unfortunately, I’m _bear_ -y serious!” Monokuma elaborated. “You’ve all been cut off from the outside world until you die!”

“This class really is cursed…” Emiko moped as she hung her head.

“That can’t be,” Hifumi gasped.

Ren glared at Monokuma from behind his glasses while Miaya hid quietly behind Kudo-sensei.

“Your claim is asinine,” Kari declared in her usual authoritarian tone. “What’s the point of furthering our talents in isolation if we’re never able to share them with the outside world?”

“Yeah, what she said!” Charlotte agreed.

“That’s right!” Reiko shouted.

“That point is at least 15°!” Noise affirmed.

“Hmm,” Monokuma pondered, “you may have a point there. Thus, I have included a special Graduation Clause that you can use to leave this place should you find your confinement un _bear_ able!”

“And what exactly is that?” Kudo-sensei inquired gruffly.

“Well, the rule is simple,” explained the monochromatic headmaster. “All you have to do if you want to leave is _murder somebody_!”

“Murder…?” Ann muttered.

“Such a rule is beyond comprehension!” Yusuke exclaimed.

“Murder is hardly a laughing matter!” Haruki retorted.

“M-m-m-murder our classmates…?” Charlotte stammered. “There’s no way…”

“Fuck…” murmured Noise.

“That’s—” Shiro started.

“Shut up!” Kudo-sensei yelled to interrupt the commotion. The class immediately fell silent as their teacher spoke. The scruffy man took a chair from the edge of one of the rows and kicked the joint of one of its legs to remove it. He leaned down for a moment to grab the chair’s leg and then glared from under his spiky bangs at Monokuma. “How dare you? Who do you think you are threatening my students that way? Well, psychos like you try to screw with Hope’s Peak every now and then. I’ll tell you what. I don’t care what you’re trying to pull. I’m going to tear that bear apart, and then we’re going to use whatever you’re using to control it to track you, and you’ll be lucky if all you get is arrested.”

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you!” Monokuma warned. “Violence against the headmaster is strictly prohibited! Breaking the rules would incur quite a hefty punishment!”

“I said shut the fuck up!” Kudo-sensei yelled as he rushed down the stairs toward Monokuma.

“Let’s back him up!” called the Ultimate Student Council President. Kari rushed downward after her teacher, and several others followed suit. Charlotte steadied her breathing and flexed her incredible muscles before leaping over the tops of several chairs toward the stage. Takamaru gave a militaristic cry as he charged down the stairs. Haruki grinned wildly and started cartwheeling over the rows of chairs toward the monochromatic bear. Noise removed his hands from his pockets as he descended the stairway. Ren dropped his shoulder bag and began parkouring over the chairs toward the bear as well.

“Oh no!” Monokuma cried. “This all-out assault may be too much for little ol’ me to handle! Come to my aid! I beseech thee save my humble life, O Almighty Sword, Arondight!”

As the crowd approached Monokuma, Kudo-sensei climbed onto the stage and kicked over the central podium. He loomed over the bear and poised to strike with the broken chair leg. Then, suddenly, instantly, unnaturally, half a dozen thick, metal blades emerged from beneath the stage. They sprang up from between the wooden floorboards and splattered our sensei’s blood all over his oncoming students. The blades pierced Kudo-sensei’s heart, throat, forehead, arms, feet, and stomach. The weapons held him suspended mid-strike. He was frozen, petrified in a gory display of defiance. His students were simultaneously paralyzed.

“I warned you!” Monokuma snickered. Suddenly, the room began to move. Without warning, the entire auditorium rose as though it were a giant elevator. We stood motionless—incapable of comprehending what we saw, much less reacting to it. Within moments, the ceiling above us opened overhead to reveal clear, blue skies. The chairs and stairs throughout the room folded down into the floor, which leveled out into a flat surface. Likewise, the stage lowered so that it too was level with the floor. As the sun’s bright light illuminated the world around us, our eyes gazed simultaneously in every direction to behold the unbelievable scenery.

We were on the deck of a titanic vessel. This massive cruise ship floated over an endless blue ocean without a hint of land in any direction. We truly were separated from the rest of the world. That isolation bored itself into our very hearts through our disbelieving eyes. “Welcome to the Killing School Cruise!” Monokuma gleefully announced atop our teacher’s tattered corpse. This feeling gripped my body and overcame me. It could not simply be described as abject terror. The feeling was one devoid of all other emotion. It drained me of all sense of hope, of all promise for the future. This was the true meaning of _despair_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After more than a year of writing and editing, I'm finally ready to post this huge crossover! I'm planning to post a section every Saturday starting now (June 15, 2019). 
> 
> I want to go ahead and clear a few things up about this fan fiction: First of all, this work is set in the continuity of the video games. I haven't seen the anime adaptation of Danganronpa or Persona 5. (I chose the name Ren Amamiya for Persona 5's protagonist because it's the name used for him in Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight.) Speaking of the games, this work takes place after Persona 5, and it contains massive spoilers, so please don't read this unless you've finished playing Persona 5 or at least watched the anime! On that note, this work takes place in the continuity of Persona 5, not the upcoming remake: Persona 5 The Royal. (The trailers make it look like things might be different in P5R.) 
> 
> Lastly, I want to give a shout-out to my main editor: BlueBow501. She not only served as the first-line editor for this entire work, but she also let me use her own Danganronpa OC, Lucille Wridge, as a character in the work. Full credit goes to BlueBow501 for Lucille's character and design!


	2. Chapter 1: Trial of War & Murder of Peace - Daily Life

_A “killing game”?_ The words alone left a bitter taste in my mouth. Yesterday, after his gory introduction, Monokuma took some time to explain to us the rules for our time aboard the “Killing School Cruise.” Each of us also found an e-Handbook, a sort of supposedly-indestructible tablet, on our persons. These devices contained each student’s ID, report cards with information on the other students, a map of the areas we were allowed to access aboard the ship, and the “school regulations” for our time here. I opened my handbook to review the rules as explained:

1\. Students may reside only within the _S.S. Titanokuma-A_. Leaving the vessel is an unacceptable use of time.  
2\. "Nighttime" is from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Some areas are off-limits at night, so please exercise caution.  
3\. Sleeping anywhere other than the dormitory will be seen as sleeping in class and punished accordingly.  
4\. With minimal restrictions, you are free to explore the _S.S. Titanokuma-A_ at your discretion.  
5\. Violence against headmaster Monokuma is strictly prohibited, as is destruction of surveillance cameras.  
6\. Swimming in the ocean is not allowed. Littering by throwing objects into the ocean is also prohibited.  
7\. Anyone who kills a fellow student and becomes "blackened" will graduate, unless they are discovered.  
8\. Additional regulations may be added if necessary.

Of course, we had witnessed firsthand the consequences of breaking these regulations. After explaining the rules, Monokuma had left us to explore the ship. Kari, Lucille, Charlotte, Miaya, Shiro, and Noise seemed unable to leave Kudo-sensei’s side, but the rest of us made our way down a nearby flight of stairs if only to escape the horrific spectacle on the deck. Down the stairs, we found a series of hallways similar to the ones lower down.

The central hall led to a cluster of rooms that we assumed to be the “dormitory” mentioned in the rules. The hall featured seventeen doors, each one with a sign featuring the name and a pixelated depiction of the room’s intended inhabitant. Facing the end of the hall, the boys' rooms (and Kagami's) were on the left side, and the girls' rooms were on the right. At the very end of the hall was a room marked “Shigekazu” with a smiling, black-and-white sprite of Kudo-sensei. This room, unlike the others, had been sealed off with black-and-yellow tape marked “DECEASED” in bold letters. _That was fast._

I had collapsed in my room and stared into the featureless walls and ceiling for hours in an attempt to wrap my head around the situation. _Would someone really kill another student to leave? Most of the others have been classmates for a long time; I can’t imagine they’d turn on each other. Then, for the transfers, one is the Ultimate Moral Compass; another is a Phantom Thief. The Phantom Thieves were heroes, right? There’s no way they’d kill somebody._

Still, despite keeping myself awake all day and night thinking about it, I couldn’t convince myself that it wasn’t a possibility. I even found myself wondering if I would kill someone in order to leave. _Who would I kill? Could I even avoid being discovered?_ I tried to dismiss the thoughts as soon as they appeared. After all, there was no guarantee Monokuma—or whatever psychopath was controlling him—would keep his word and allow the so-called “blackened” to leave this vessel. Our chances of escape were higher with more of us, so turning us against each other was probably part of his strategy to keep us confined for whatever reason.

While tossing and turning throughout the night, I eventually reached under my pillow without thinking. There, I found a coin. Wondering what it might be, I took the coin out from under the pillow, flicked on a lightswitch by my bedside, and observed it closely: It was a gold-colored coin with Monokuma’s face imprinted on it. Thinking it might be important, I decided to pocket it for later.

After a fairly restless night, I heard a buzzing sound like a doorbell. I hesitated a moment before pulling myself from my bed and walking to the doorway. I took a deep breath, and then I cautiously opened the threshold. I was met by Hikari Yamamoto, the Ultimate Student Council President. “Good morning, Gale,” she greeted me with a smile, “I wanted to invite you to eat breakfast with everyone.”

“There’s a place to eat breakfast here?” I wondered aloud.

“Of course, Monokuma seems to have provided all of the necessities,” Kari explained. “Our rooms have bathrooms with showers, and there’s a fully-stocked restaurant with full-course meals. It’s almost like a real luxury cruise.”

“Well, we need to eat I guess,” I said dryly.

“Hey,” Kari continued while placing a hand on my shoulder, “no one else is going to die. I’ll make sure of it myself. I’ve been class rep for over a year now. No one knows how to hold these kids together better than I do.”

“Thanks,” I managed to murmur while doing my best to smile. Her confidence was comforting. She knew what her classmates were capable of better than I would, after all.

I took a minute to get ready and dress myself before joining the others for breakfast. My bathroom contained all the hygienic necessities: toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss, deodorant, a hairbrush, etc. My room also featured a fully-stocked wardrobe containing dozens of duplicates of the exact same outfit and half a dozen or so sets of pajamas. The outfits were identical to what I had found myself wearing the day before: a loosely-fitting, dark red shirt with dark green trim that exposed too much of my collarbone for my liking as well as black-and-gray tennis shoes and baggy, dark gray cargo pants. When I put on a pair of pants, I found that the pockets contained another coin identical to the one I’d found under my pillow.

After dressing myself, I took a moment to check myself out in the mirror, and I tried to brush my dark hair before meeting the others for breakfast, but a single, stubborn cowlick persisted atop my head despite my best efforts. Eventually, I gave up and left for breakfast.

To my surprise, Kari was waiting patiently for me outside my room. She smiled and nodded at me as my door closed itself behind me. I followed her down the dormitory hallway, and we saw Ren leaving his dorm room as well. “Did you decide to join us for breakfast after all?” Kari asked the quiet Phantom Thief.

“Yeah,” Ren answered with a nod, and he accompanied us further down the hall and around a couple of corners. There, we came to an extravagant set of blue-and-gold double doors with the word “RESTAURANT” printed overhead in silver, cursive script.

When the three of us entered, I saw the other thirteen students all sitting in groups at a series of round tables: Hifumi, Yusuke, and Ann all sat together at one table. Reiko, Takamaru, Haruki, Kagami, and Charlotte sat together at a separate table. Emiko, Shiro, Miaya, and Lucille sat together around a third table. Noise sat at the final table by himself.

“It took you long enough!” Reiko exclaimed.

“Seriously, you guys are so zetta slow,” Noise complained.

“Can we eat now?” Takamaru asked the crowd.

“Please? I’m, like, seriously about to starve to death,” Ann groaned.

“I insisted that we should wait for the three of you so we could eat together as a group,” Shiro explained with a smile.

Miaya scribbled something onto a napkin with a pen. She held it up, and it read, “I thought it was a gr8 idea~! uwu Eating together lets ppl bond thru tough timez! <3”

“Well, if we’re really going to eat together, we can’t be all spread out like this,” Kari chuckled. “C’mon, let’s push these tables together.”

“I’ve never eaten in such a large group before…” Hifumi admitted quietly.

“Worry not,” Yusuke assured her as he stood to push their table toward the others. “I myself learned not too long ago that food tastes better among friends.”

“Don’t get too chummy now,” Kagami interjected. “You guys are still the most suspicious group here.”

“No,” Lucille disagreed, “suspicion among us is likely Monokuma’s goal. All of us were present when Monokuma appeared. I seriously doubt any us could have been controlling him remotely.”

“Actually, Kagami,” Haruki taunted with a playful wag of his finger, “as the Ultimate Physicist, you’re the only one here with the technical knowhow to build something as complex as Monokuma.”

“What the hell do you think physicists are?” Kagami retorted.

“Well, ze did build that air purifier for finals last semester…” Emiko muttered.

“Yeah, that was a fricking air purifier, not a psychotic stuffed animal!” Kagami almost choked as ze started to get defensive.

“Hey, that’s enough! Help me with the tables,” Kari ordered.

Haruki sighed and reluctantly pushed his table toward the others without dropping his smug grin. “Besides,” Kagami continued under zir breath, “it’s not like l built the purifier by myself. I had help from… from Kudo-sensei…”

The room fell silent. “Don’t worry, Kagami,” Charlotte squeaked after a long moment. “We all know you’re not actually behind any of this.”

“Yeah, besides, Kudo-sensei would just cuss us out if he could see all of your faces looking like f(x) =-x^2,” Noise chided. The mathematician stood up and pushed his table toward the rest.

“We can’t plan our next move on an empty stomach,” Kari declared. “Let’s all just enjoy breakfast. We can handle the rest when we get to it.”

The president pulled chairs up for Ren and me. “Thanks,” I added before sitting, and Ren sat down silently in turn. Our food had already been prepared before our belated arrival. I took a moment to pray in thanks for the meal before eating.

“Maybe I’m a bit late saying this,” Lucille interjected, “but shouldn’t we make sure this food hasn’t been poisoned or drugged first? We are assuming it’s been provided by Monokuma, after all.”

Ann and Takamaru simultaneously looked up at Lucille with their mouths already stuffed with pancakes and bacon. “What do you mean?” Ann asked in a muffled voice.

“I think it’s fine,” Reiko chuckled as she rubbed her boyfriend’s shoulder.

“Well, _bon appétit_ ,” Yusuke declared before cutting into his own meal.

After eating for a bit, I bit into something hard with one of my pancakes. I pulled the object from my mouth to find yet another one of those gold coins. Meanwhile, to my right, Miaya scribbled another note onto a napkin and passed it to Charlotte. I was able to read it since they were sitting relatively close to me: “I can’t eat another bite!! :o Do you want the rest of mine????”

“No thanks,” the colossal cheerleader squeaked through a large smile, “I’m actually trying to watch my figure.”

“Ahem!” Haruki cleared his throat in an exaggerated voice, “Ladies and gentlemen—and Kagami—may I have your attention please?” All of us turned to behold the Ultimate Class Clown as he began to juggle a series of forks, spoons, and butter knives while standing atop the table in front of him. The crowd offered a series of oohs and ahs as Reiko occasionally tossed a strawberry toward him, and he would catch the fruit in his mouth without disrupting the airborne silverware at all. When he finished, he caught all of the silverware in his hand and bowed deeply. More than half the room applauded while Charlotte offered a standing ovation, and Miaya held up a napkin with “11/10 <3” written on it.

“That was amazing, Haruki!” a familiar, high-pitched voice interjected. All of us turned in unison to see Monokuma, our so-called headmaster, clapping his cartoonish forepaws together in applause.

“What do you want?” Ann asked in a disgusted tone.

“Aw, you guys just looked like you were having so much fun that I wanted to be part of it!” Monokuma cheered.

“Fuck off,” Noise growled.

“Did you think we’d forget what you did to Kudo-sensei?” Kagami bit.

“Now, now, Shigekazu had it coming. That’s what you get for breaking the rules! I warned him, didn’t I?” Monokuma snickered.

“Surely you didn’t just come here to fraternize,” Lucille accused.

“Hmm,” Monokuma pondered, “I _may_ have had another reason to come.”

“Nobody’s participating in your so-called killing game,” Kari asserted.

“Not at this rate, you won’t, and that’s why I’m here,” Monokuma announced. “I figure you guys need a little nudge in the right direction, so I came to offer a motive!”

“What exactly do you mean by a ‘motive’?” Yusuke inquired.

“Allow me to show you!” Monokuma cheered as he waddled over to one of the restaurant’s doors. He opened the door to reveal a gigantic pantry full of all kinds of foods: preserved fruits, vegetables, meats, beans, bread, fish, rice—everything one could imagine. “This is the restaurant’s storeroom! Its stock is _non-refillable_!”

“You’re telling us—” Emiko started.

“That’s right!” Monokuma interrupted. “The amount of food you have aboard the _S.S. Titanokuma-A_ is limited! Right now, there’s about enough for all sixteen of you to survive for three months. Of course, you could double that time if there were half as many of you, and if there were only four of you, you could probably make it last a whole year! That said, if you drag this killing game out forever and never graduate,” Monokuma paused to lean forward and emphasize his dark side as his vicious red eye glowed brightly, “ _you’ll all eventually starve to death!_ ”

“That’s total bullshit!” Reiko shouted.

“If you don’t like it, all you have to do to leave is kill somebody!” Monokuma encouraged.

“You’re telling us that if we don’t sacrifice each other, we’re all going to die,” Lucille confirmed.

“That’s right,” Monokuma agreed, “so why bother trying to keep everyone alive like this? At least some of you are going to die either way, so you might as well live for yourself, right?”

“That’s unacceptable!” Shiro declared with a defiant swipe of his hand.

“Say what you want,” Monokuma chuckled, “but I wonder how long the so-called ‘Ultimate Moral Compass’ can hold onto those precious morals in a situation like this.”

“Your threats are going to fall on deaf ears,” Kari argued. “We’ll escape here before that food runs out, easily.”

“Puhuhu… I wonder…” Monokuma chuckled. Then, as suddenly as he appeared, the monochromatic headmaster vanished around a corner.

“Gale,” Kari asked me, “you’re the Ultimate Adventurer, right? How much do you know about survival?”

“Um,” I answered, “things have gotten pretty rough from time to time, so I’m not bad at fending for myself. There really isn’t anything to hunt or anywhere to grow food here, though…”

“Can you fish?” Kari asked.

“Yeah, of course, anyone can fish,” I claimed.

“Then we have a backup plan in case we’re unable to escape within the time limit,” Kari asserted. “We’ll just need to find some tools to use to fish.”

“Look at you, Pres,” Haruki chuckled. “It hasn’t even been two minutes, and you’ve already got a plan of attack.”

“That’s our president for you!” Charlotte cheered.

“In the meantime,” Noise interjected, “what’s our plan to FOIL Monokuma?”

“Let’s start by exploring,” I suggested. “We can look for escape routes or clues on who’s controlling Monokuma, and we can search for tools we can use to grow or catch food as a failsafe while we’re at it.”

“I concur,” Lucille agreed.

“Look at the new guy, takin’ charge,” Reiko admired.

“I don’t see the point in looking for an escape route,” Emiko muttered. “Monokuma wouldn’t make it that easy to get out of here. Besides, who knows how far out to sea we are?”

“We can look for clues to that as well,” Kari encouraged. “Any information could be pivotal.”

“Besides,” Noise continued as he scratched his undercut, “imagine if there were something obvious to find that was really helpful, and we just didn’t notice because we were too discouraged to look; we’d feel like total dumbasses.”

“Do we not normally?” Takamaru asked rhetorically.

“Okay! Now I’m pumped!” Charlotte cheered as she slapped her face for emphasis. “Let’s go, team!”

The lot of us cleaned up our dishes and then split up as we left the restaurant to explore. “Hey,” Lucille confronted me as we prepared to leave, “we really shouldn’t be wandering off on our own until we know it’s safe. Why don’t we explore together in the meantime?” Her considerate offer surprised me given her stern demeanor heretofore.

“Uh, sure,” I replied, “were you worried about me in particular?”

“Well,” Lucille explained, “most of the students have known each other for a while. Shiro gets along well with everyone, and the other transfers seem to know each other, so you were the one who seemed most likely to get in trouble wandering off by himself.”

“That makes sense, I guess,” I conceded. I followed Lucille down the halls and began to explore the floor’s remaining corridors.

In less than a minute, we found a door with the face of a strange creature depicted on it. The creature’s face was a similar shape to Monokuma’s, but its face was symmetrical, and its beady eyes had effeminate eyelashes drawn above them. The creature also had a pair of rabbit ears instead of Monokuma’s ursine ears, and one of the ears featured a prominent bow. Lucille held her hand over the image as she seemed to recognize the face. “This is…”

Before I could question her, Lucille opened the door, and I followed her into the room. Therein, we found a comfortable office that closely resembled a lounge. In addition to a work desk, office chair, and filing cabinet, the room also featured a water fountain, a reclining sofa, and a shelf containing any number of books and board games. An ornate window offered a relaxing view of the never-ending ocean outside. Miaya was sitting comfortably in the office chair eyeing a memory drive featuring the face of the same creature on the door. Kagami was rifling through the shelf and examining the titles of the various texts thereon.

“What is this place?” I asked no one in particular.

“It’s some kinda lounge,” Kagami answered, “but I’m trying to figure out why Usami’s face is on the door.”

“Who’s Usami?” I asked.

“Monokuma appears!” the monochromatic headmaster exclaimed as he burst from the shadows.

“You again?” Lucille groaned.

“Now, now! I come in peace! I’m here to answer all of your questions about this place,” Monokuma chuckled. “See? I’m not so bad. Now will you let me eat breakfast with all of you?”

“Die,” Kagami shot.

Monokuma stared solemnly down at his cartoonish paws. “Fine, be that way,” he pouted. “Anyway, this room is what’s called an Ultimate Research Lab! To be specific, this is the Ultimate Therapist's lab. That is to say this lab belongs to Miaya Gekkogahara. It features all of the tools and studies required for her to cultivate her abilities as the Ultimate Therapist! That includes a special app exclusively for her very own e-Handbook. Go ahead, Miaya; plug that drive right in.”

Miaya hesitantly took the memory drive off the desk and tried to insert it into her e-Handbook, but she had to turn the whole device around to find a notch she could open to insert the drive. She tried to stick the drive into the port, but she had to turn the drive upside down before it would fit. She dropped the e-Handbook on the desk with a startled expression when it buzzed. With its screen facing upward, I could see a loading bar crawling across the screen as something downloaded from the drive.

“Oh, yeah, it’s much tighter inside than I imagined,” Monokuma huffed. His face turned red as if he were blushing, and steam floated from his mouth and ears as he began to breathe heavily. “Just a bit more, I’m almost there. Yes, yes, I’m coming! Yes! Ah, there we go. Now it’s all inside.”

Kagami stood up and glared down at Monokuma as if ze were about to punt him into the nearest wall, but Lucille stepped between them. “Kagami, remember the rules. It’s not worth it.”

“I’m gonna kill this freak. Mark my words,” Kagami growled.

Miaya bashfully unplugged the drive from her e-Handbook, and she opened a new app. Within moments, her eyes lit up brightly, and she began typing frantically on the handbook’s touchscreen. She turned the e-Handbook around, and a cartoonish avatar appeared on the screen. Its shape somewhat resembled Monokuma’s, but its whole body was a pinkish white, and its face was identical to the face on the door and the memory drive. Two tiny, feathery wings sprouted from its back, and it wore a pink bib decorated with a gold, angelic charm. It also wore a short, pink skirt with several layers of frills. All in all, its attire resembled that of an archetypical magical girl.

“Hello, everyone! It’s good to be back!” the creature announced through the e-Handbook.

“Usami!” Kagami and Lucille exclaimed in unison as they rushed toward Miaya.

Miaya frantically typed on her e-Handbook before turning it back around. “I was worried I was going to need to write on napkins the whole time we were here!” the creature admitted as a somber expression enveloped its animated face.

“Um, what’s going on?” I asked.

“Gale, this is Usami,” Lucille explained. “She’s an avatar Miaya uses to communicate. She doesn’t really talk on her own, but she can use Usami to convey her true feelings. She’s actually pretty gung-ho.”

“Now that I’ve unlocked my final form, Monokuma and this killing game don’t stand a chance!” the animated rabbit announced after Miaya typed on the handbook. “We’re all going to escape together and put a stop to this madness!”

“Speaking of which, where’d he run off to?” I asked once I noticed that Monokuma was gone.

“Coward must have bolted,” Kagami scoffed.

“You know, Kagami,” Miaya said through Usami, “now that I’m back in action and have this lab, if you want, we can continue our usual therapy sessions.”

“I don’t really think now’s the time,” Kagami declined.

“No, now might be the perfect time,” Lucille considered. “Monokuma’s goal in all this is to attack us mentally. Considering that, Miaya’s talent could be invaluable to us.”

“I don’t need you telling me what to do. I get enough of that from Kari,” Kagami retorted.

“Well, I can’t force you,” Lucille admitted. “Come on, Gale. We need to keep exploring.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. I followed Lucille out of the Ultimate Therapist's lab, and we continued to explore the winding halls below deck. Before long, we came upon another door. This one featured three bold 7s in a row.

“I have a feeling I know what this one is,” Lucille commented. We stepped inside, and we found a grand hall resembling an extravagant casino. Slot machines seemed to play themselves along one wall. Roulette wheels and card tables also decorated the room. Emiko sat alone in front of one of the slot machines. Meanwhile, Ren, Ann, and Yusuke sat around a card table talking amongst themselves.

Over the sound of the self-playing slots, I couldn’t hear what the three of them were discussing from the entrance, so I moved closer. “This is starting to feel a little too familiar,” Ann complained.

“I concur,” Yusuke agreed. “Between this casino and the cruise ship, the sense of déjà vu is overwhelming.”

“If I ever set foot on a cruise again, it’ll be too soon,” Ann groaned. Ren simply nodded in agreement.

“Have you three been somewhere like here before?” I asked. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop.”

“What? No, of course not!” Ann chuckled defensively.

“Come to think of it,” I continued. “You three seem to know each other. You’ve been hanging out since we got here. We’re all transfer students, but Shiro and I don’t know anybody.”

“Well, Ren and I are actually from the same class at Shujin Academy,” Ann explained. “Isn’t it crazy that we both got scouted for Hope’s Peak?”

“I’m from Hosei Academy near the same area,” Yusuke explained.

“Then, did you guys know Ren was a Phantom Thief?” I asked.

“Well…” Ann trailed off. “Should we tell him?” she attempted to whisper to her friends.

Ren nodded in affirmation. “You’re right,” Yusuke affirmed. “Keeping secrets in this situation will only breed distrust.”

“You see, the truth is,” Ann explained, “Yusuke and I were also Phantom Thieves. Ren was just the leader.”

“That’s crazy!” I exclaimed. “All three of you are Phantom Thieves? Is Hifumi one too?”

“No, she wasn’t,” Ren answered.

“Hifumi was my classmate at Hosei and a friend of our leader,” Yusuke explained. “Her being here is also a striking coincidence.”

“She knows Ren was a Phantom Thief, but we haven’t told her about Yusuke and me yet,” Ann continued.

“Well, your secret’s safe with me,” I assured them. “I was a big Phanboy when you guys were popular. Why did you guys disband, anyway?” I asked.

“That’s…” Ren started.

“Hey, Gale!” Lucille called over the sound of the slots from across the hall. “Come check this out!”

“We can explain another time,” Ann offered.

“It’s a long story,” Ren affirmed.

“I’ll hold you to it then,” I said before making my way to Lucille. She was standing over Emiko next to a slot machine.

“What’s the big deal?” Emiko asked.

“I want to test if the machines are rigged. Gale is going to be our witness,” Lucille explained.

Emiko sighed, “Fine, I’ll try it.” She took a gold coin engraved with an image of Monokuma’s face from her pocket.

“You’ve seen those lying around too?” I inquired.

“I just happened to pick it up is all,” Emiko huffed as she inserted the coin in the machine. She pulled the lever on the side. She waited a moment as each of the slots came to a stop. The first one landed: 7. The second stopped: 7. The third came to a halt: 7. Confetti burst from the machine as it began flashing lights of every color and dinging excitedly. Hundreds of those same coins came pouring out of the machine. “Figures,” Emiko muttered before standing up and walking away.

“Yeah, it’s definitely fair,” Lucille observed.

“What the hell, it got 777 on the first spin!” I exclaimed.

“Emiko’s Ultimate Luck is the real deal,” Lucille explained. “Every year, Hope’s Peak selects a student at random to attend the academy even if they lack a particular talent. The fact that they receive the invitation means they are incredibly lucky, and that helps the academy recruit students like Emiko, whose luck is borderline supernatural.”

“That’s incredible,” I gawked, “but Emiko doesn’t seem too thrilled about it.”

“She has… issues,” Lucille trailed off. “Why don’t you give it a try?”

I sat at the slot machine at Lucille’s suggestion, but suddenly Monokuma appeared from behind the machine and blew a whistle that was tied around his neck. “Negative! This machine is out of order! It’s all out of Monocoins!”

“Is that what these are?” Lucille asked as she examined a coin from the pile that had spewed from the machine.

“That isn’t yours!” Monokuma interjected as he snatched the coin from her hand. “Only the person who finds or wins the Monocoins can use them.”

“I have a few that I’ve found lying around,” I shared. “Can I use those?”

“Of course!” Monokuma answered, “This machine is still out of order though. Why don’t you try your hand at the almighty MonoMono Machine?” Monokuma turned and gestured toward an apparatus resembling a giant gumball machine in the corner.

“What’s that?” Lucille asked.

“Place coins in the machine, and you’ll win a special prize! The prizes are random, but they might make nice gifts for your friends!” Monokuma declared.

“That’s… suspiciously considerate of you,” I observed.

“Well, the way I see it,” Monokuma elaborated, “the murders will be even juicier if you’re closer to the people you’re killing! A bunch of strangers slashing each other just doesn’t have the same thrill!”

“You’re disgusting,” Lucille chided, but Monokuma vanished behind the slot machine as quickly as he had appeared.

“It wouldn’t hurt to try,” I continued as I approached the MonoMono Machine. “There might be something useful in there.” I placed a Monocoin in the machine and pulled the lever. The machine cranked, and from the massive slot came an entire katana. I took the sword from the machine and unsheathed it. The blade and hilt were covered in matching gold paint, but it was immediately obvious that the weapon was dull and useless. “This is… weird.” I sheathed the blade again and found that part of the gold paint had come off on my hand.

“We shouldn’t waste time with this,” Lucille sighed.

“Come on. I’ve only got two more coins,” I assured her as I inserted my second coin. This time, I received a bag of coffee beans that, according to the label, were grown in the volcanic soil of Hawaii. With my final Monocoin, I received a small bottle of hand sanitizer that “kills **_99.999999999%_ ** of germs!!” Then, the machine declared that I had won an extra “lucky spin,” and with its final turn, it deposited a case of matching knives.

“How are you even going to carry all of that?” Lucille asked.

“Watch me,” I declared as I followed her out of the Ultimate Lucky Student's lab. Soon, we came across the door to what we assumed to be a third Ultimate Research Lab. This door featured a picture of a shogi tile. “This one’s pretty easy too,” I said as we opened the door and stepped inside.

This lab had a traditional Japanese aesthetic with a wooden floor, beige walls, and tiled windows. In the center of the room was a long table with half a dozen or so shogi boards stretched across it. Mats with pillows lay on the floor on either side of the table for players to kneel on. There were also a number of small benches nearby to seat spectators. Finally, a bookshelf featuring numerous strategy guides rested against the wall at the end of the room. Sitting on either side of the table were Hifumi and Noise, locked in an intense game of shogi.

“Is now really the time to be gaming?” Lucille asked.

“Silence, peasant!” Hifumi decreed in an uncharacteristically enthusiastic tone. “My Infinite Guardian Sky Dragon, Amun-Ra, has just devastated the ranks of his Army of the Lost Imperator.”

“Goddammit!” Noise shouted as he flipped the shogi board next to the one they were playing on. “You might have won this time, Vile Empress Caligula, but every matrix has an inverse. I will find the limit of u as my skill approaches infinity!”

“Foolish mortal!” Hifumi retorted, “You have no concept of the breadth of the Infinite Sky. That is why you were no match for my dragon.”

“Your fucking dragon can take its infinity bullshit and shove it down its spiral of Archimedes!” Noise screamed.

“What exactly are we looking at?” I asked Lucille.

“I think Noise has a crush,” she answered in a tone that was equally astonished and disbelieving.

“I’ll _crush_ you into fractal geometry if you don’t quit distracting me!” Noise heckled. “You, ‘Venus of Shogi’,” he declared as he turned back toward Hifumi, “I demand another game.”

“Though the devas whence the veil may cry against the doors of Heaven, their admittance is forever denied whilst they remain unwavering in their conceit,” Hifumi declared somberly.

“You fucking scared?” Noise taunted.

“Hell no, let’s do this shit,” Hifumi replied as she reset the shogi board.

“We should leave them to it,” I suggested.

Lucille and I exited the lab and continued exploring the halls. “I have a feeling those two are just happy to be back in their element,” Lucille pondered aloud. “Noise may be the Ultimate Mathematician, but he’s always had a soft spot for game theory, and he hates to be outsmarted.”

The two of us wandered around a bit longer before reaching a dead end marked by a massive, metal wall with a texture similar to a garage door. The wall had Monokuma’s smiling face painted on it, and Haruki was standing before the barrier and examining it from top to bottom. “ _Bonjour_!” he called to us when we approached. “We know the ship goes deeper than this, but I’m pretty sure this is keeping us from going farther down,” Haruki observed in an unexpectedly straightforward tone.

“If Monokuma wants to keep us out, we probably want in,” Lucille concluded. “Do you have any idea how to open the door?”

“Not a hint, my best guess is there’s a mechanism on the other side, or maybe it’s remoted to some kind of control room,” Haruki sighed. “It’s definitely nothing we can open on our own. It’s probably related to Monokuma’s game somehow.”

“I’ve gotta admit I’m getting sick of seeing his face on everything,” I confided as I approached and examined the barrier for any kind of crevice or handle.

“That does it for this floor then,” Lucille concluded. “We should return to the deck and look for clues there as well.”

“Can we stop by the dorms first?” I requested. “I really need to drop all this stuff off.”

“Yeah, I was going to ask about that,” Haruki chuckled.

“It’s some contraption called the MonoMono Machine in Emiko’s lab,” Lucille explained briefly. “As much as I hate to admit it, I think you’d love it.”

“You don’t say,” Haruki chuckled. “Well, I’ll go check it out then. You two play nice without me!” Haruki left us with a wink and ran off toward the Ultimate Lucky Student's lab.

Lucille sighed, and she followed me back to the dormitory. In the hall connecting all of our rooms, we found Reiko struggling outside Takamaru’s door. Shiro was standing nearby observing the situation. “What’s the matter?” I asked.

“Ugh,” Reiko groaned, “I realized I left my e-Handbook in Takamaru’s room this morning, but the stupid door is locked, and you need an e-Handbook to open the door.”

“What exactly were you doing in Takamaru’s room early this morning?” Shiro inquired.

“Um, I slept in his room last night,” Reiko said. “Was that not obvious?”

“What! That’s unseemly!” Shiro exclaimed in a flustered tone. “A boy and a girl can’t be sharing a room like that! Who knows what kinds of things they could be up to?”

“You mean sex?” Reiko asked plainly. “Honey, you’re pretty late to the party.”

“How does this not violate the rules?” Shiro wondered aloud as he looked away to hide his blushing expression.

“Well, the rules specify we have to sleep in the dorms,” Lucille observed, “but they don’t say anything about sleeping in our own dorms.”

“Here, let me try to open the door for you,” I offered.

Each dorm room was locked by an adjacent scanner just below the button for the doorbell. Last night, I had swiped my e-Handbook over my door's adjacent device to unlock it and enter my room. However, when I swiped my handbook over the one adjacent to Takamaru’s door, the red light atop the scanner flashed repeatedly and beeped unpleasantly in reply.

“I believe our e-Handbooks only open the doors to our own rooms,” Lucille concluded. “This morning, I scanned my handbook over everyone’s doors just to be certain, and I was only able to unlock my own.”

“That’s correct!” Monokuma shouted as he burst from around the corner. “I have to make it a little difficult for you to be killed in your sleep. Otherwise, what’s the sport in it?”

“Fine, I’ll just borrow Takamaru’s e-Handbook,” Reiko conceded.

“No way!” Monokuma denied, “That would defeat the whole purpose if everyone just started passing their handbooks around like cheese dip!”

“There’s no rule against it,” Lucille retorted.

“Grr, fine!” Monokuma growled. “I’m adding a special rule just for you!”

“You just had to say something!” Reiko groaned.

I checked the rules on my e-Handbook just to be certain, and sure enough, a new rule had been added to the list:

9\. Lending your e-Handbook to another student is strictly prohibited.

“Alright, I guess I have to just drag Takamaru back down here,” Reiko asserted before marching down the hall toward the stairs.

“I should have a word with our Student Council President,” Shiro thought aloud. “Even if they are boyfriend and girlfriend, sleeping together is, well…”

“Just let them do it,” Lucille argued. “Those two have been inseparable for a while now. The precedent has seniority.”

“I suppose,” Shiro sighed. “Normally, I would never compromise on such a thing, but our extenuating circumstances may warrant the occasional exception.”

Leaving them to ponder the ethics of premarital intercourse, I swiped my e-Handbook over my own room’s scanner, entered, and placed my collection of trinkets on my coffee table at the center. Then, true to my word, I regrouped with Lucille and followed her up to the ship’s deck. Atop the staircase, the massive vessel seemed to sprawl out before us in every direction. Takamaru stood near the center of the deck staring skyward. Kari was looking over the edge of the ship at the ocean below while Charlotte stood by a red door connected to the ship’s aftcastle.

I decided to approach Takamaru first. “Has Reiko come by here?” I asked. “She was trying to get into your room.”

“Hm? Oh, yeah, I’ll help her with that in just a sec,” Takamaru dismissed. “I’ve been staring at the sky and trying to get an idea of where in the world we might be.”

“Any ideas?” Lucille inquired.

“I've got no fucking clue,” Takamaru admitted. “You know, when I’m flying a plane," he started as he wrapped an arm over my shoulders, “everything seems so clear to me, and I seem to always know where I’m at”—Takamaru closed his fist for emphasis—“but from down here, where you poor, flightless commoners grovel in the mud, everything looks the goddamn same.”

“What happened to Kudo-sensei?” I was almost afraid to ask as I moved from Takamaru's grip, but the disappearance of his corpse had baffled me.

“Beats me,” Takamaru answered, “I guess Monokuma moved his body after we all crashed and burned last night. He probably just threw it in the ocean.”

“Kudo-sensei deserved better than that,” Lucille murmured.

“Look, I’m upset too,” Takamaru defended. “I’m just telling it like I see it.” His reply was met only with silence. “I’m just gonna go back to staring at the sky now,” he continued before returning his gaze to the heavens.

Feeling a bit awkward, I decided to approach Kari next, and Lucille followed after me. “Well, there’s good news,” the president announced as she heard our approach. “There are plenty of fish in the ocean around us.”

I looked down over the side of the deck. The ocean’s surface was dozens of feet below the deck of this massive cruiser, but I could still occasionally see the movement of marine life below the surface if I squinted through the reflecting sunlight. “That’s good,” Lucille agreed.

“We’ll just need to find or make some tools we can use to fish,” Kari continued, “and then we won’t need to worry as much about starving to death. Even if we aren’t here long enough for it to matter, I’d prefer to put everyone’s minds at ease so we can focus on escaping.”

“So far, the tools in the restaurant’s kitchen and the MonoMono Machine in Emiko’s lab are probably our best bets,” Lucille reported.

“Thanks, I knew I could count on you,” Kari replied.

“I thought you said the MonoMono Machine was dumb,” I argued.

“Well, if we can get Emiko to cooperate by using the Monocoins she won in that jackpot, we should be able to find out for certain if it has any use,” Lucille deduced.

“Let’s summarize our findings with everyone over dinner,” Kari suggested. “I need to go lie down in the meantime. I’m starting to get seasick.”

“Take it easy,” Lucille encouraged her, and Kari walked away.

Finally, the two of us approached Charlotte. “What’s this?” I asked her in reference to the massive set of square double doors behind her. Each door had a silver handle that looked as if it could be pulled downward to open it, and the door’s checkered texture was comparable to a luxurious, velvet sofa.

“I can’t tell,” Charlotte squeaked. “I didn’t notice this here yesterday. I guess I was so distracted by what happened to Sensei.” Charlotte took a minute to breathe and blink away a couple of tears. “Anyway, they’re locked, and I mean _locked_. I can’t even force them open.”

“That’s some serious security,” Lucille observed.

“How serious are we talking?” I wondered.

“Charlotte can deadlift 700 lbs.,” Lucille explained.

“750 on a good day!” Charlotte applauded herself giddily.

“Okay, that’s pretty serious,” I acknowledged as I attempted to hide my horror.

“We encountered another dead end like this downstairs,” Lucille shared.

“That one looked a lot different though,” I added.

“Well, I was just thinking,” Charlotte shared, “Monokuma—or whoever’s controlling him—has to be steering this ship somehow. I talked to Takamaru about it, and the ship definitely isn’t just drifting. I thought maybe if we could take control of the ship, we could sail somewhere useful. In the movies, the steering wheel is always in a room in the aftcastle like this one, which is why I came looking.” Charlotte fidgeted with her fingers as she justified her course of action.

“That’s good thinking,” Lucille complimented. “If this ship’s controls are behind this door, that would explain why it’s impenetrable.”

“Still, don’t you think it’s kind of weird?” I wondered.

“What do you mean?” Charlotte asked.

“Well,” I continued, “I got the same feeling from the dead end downstairs, but if we really weren’t meant to continue past this point, there would just be a wall here. The fact that there’s a door, even a sealed one, means that we can probably go there—just maybe not yet.”

“True,” Lucille agreed, “Monokuma seems to be able to traverse this vessel unimpeded by doors or locks, so I doubt the sealed doors are for his use alone.”

“Wow! You two are so smart!” Charlotte applauded with starry glints in her eyes. “I wish I were that smart…”

“No, your intuition about finding the ship’s controls was very impressive,” Lucille acknowledged. “Our future investigations could be much more productive if we keep that in mind.”

“You really mean it?” Charlotte squeaked as she excitedly grabbed Lucille’s hands. “Oh, this is great! I’m so glad I can be useful to you guys!”

Time had flown by during our exploration of the cruiser. Before we knew it, it was time to regroup with our classmates and share our findings over dinner. There was some debate over the usefulness of the Ultimate Shogi Player's lab and the MonoMono Machine, but everyone was thrilled at Miaya’s reunion with Usami, and they were intrigued at the idea of finding the ship’s controls. When we finished eating, we agreed to meet again for breakfast first thing tomorrow morning, and most of us retired to the dorms. I decided to call it a night and head back to my room.

As I approached my door, I saw Reiko step into Takamaru’s room without swiping her e-Handbook over the scanner. “Wait. How did you do that?” I asked as I approached.

“Oh?” She didn’t seem to have noticed me until I spoke up. “We found out that if there’s someone in the room, they can unlock the door from the inside. The only problem is that when you open the door again to leave, the door automatically closes behind you and locks itself. Then you have to scan your e-Handbook or unlock it from the inside again to get in.”

“Yikes,” I replied, “I’ll have to be careful not to lock my handbook in my room then.”

“You’re telling me,” Reiko sighed. “Anyway, have a good night!”

I bade Reiko goodnight and scanned my handbook to enter my room. Reassured by everyone’s teamwork, I was able to relax much more comfortably than the night before. Just as I began to settle, however, a voice sounded from the monitor next to the security camera mounted on my wall. “Mm, ahem, this is your captain speaking,” the high-pitched voice started. I sat up in my bed and looked to the monitor to see Monokuma leaning on his white forepaw and swirling a tropical beverage in the other. “It is now 10 p.m. As such, it is officially **nighttime**. Soon the doors to the kitchen will be locked, and entry at that point is strictly prohibited. Okay then… sweet dreams, everyone! Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite…” The monitor turned itself off as the announcement ended.

Despite Monokuma’s eerie warning, I slept much more soundly than the night before. I was awoken the next morning, however, by a similar announcement: “Good morning, everyone!” Monokuma called from the mounted monitor. “It is now 7 a.m., and nighttime is officially over. Time to rise and shine! Get ready to greet another beee-yutiful day!”

_I really hate that bear._

I rose from my bed, took a quick shower, dressed myself, and made my way to the restaurant for breakfast. Like yesterday, a number of tables had all been pushed together to allow us to eat as a class. “You’re late,” Shiro scolded me as I was apparently the last to enter the room. “A model student would arrive promptly at 7 a.m. or sooner!”

“I’m pretty sure you’re the only one who cares about that at a time like this,” Kagami muttered groggily.

“Sorry,” I apologized, “I got up as soon as I heard that weird announcement. What was that, anyway?”

“Didn’t you hear it yesterday?” Reiko asked.

“I must’ve slept through it,” I thought aloud.

Miaya typed something into her e-Handbook, and when she turned it around, Usami said, “Anyway, since we’re all together, let’s eat!”

“You don’t have to tell me twice!” Ann cheered as she dug into her breakfast.

“Everyone worked hard yesterday,” Kari announced. “Let’s take some time to unwind today while we consider our next move.”

“I couldn’t agree more!” Haruki exclaimed as he jumped atop the table in front of him. “To that effect, witness the next iteration of yesterday’s grand performance!” Haruki revealed half a dozen razor-sharp kitchen knives, and he began to juggle them expertly.

“Careful!” Lucille shouted, “Those are dangerous!”

“Please, I’m the Ultimate Circus Performer,” Haruki scoffed. “This is nothing to someone of my caliber!”

“That’s so cool, Haruki!” Charlotte cheered as she stood up from her seat in excitement. However, when she did, her hulking frame bumped the edge of the table, and she threw Haruki off balance. One of the knives slipped from his grasp and spun through the air toward Ren. Ren nearly jumped out of his seat as the blade flew toward him, but Shiro, who sat nearby, quickly shielded the Ultimate Phantom Thief with his plate. Haruki caught the remainder of his knives and gave an embarrassed chuckle while Shiro and Lucille glared daggers at him.

“I told you so,” Lucille grumbled.

Charlotte immediately prostrated herself and began to cry uncontrollably. “I’m so sorry, everyone! I promise to be more careful in the future!”

Miaya held her e-Handbook forward, and Usami tried to comfort the colossal cheerleader, “It’s alright, Charlotte. Accidents happen to the best of us!”

“If anything, that smug Feigenbaum constant is the one who should be apologizing,” Noise chided.

“In my defense, these knives are pretty terribly balanced,” Haruki chuckled.

“Then why are you juggling with them, idiot?” Emiko sighed.

“Well, that’s enough excitement for one morning,” Takamaru yawned. “I’m going back to bed.”

“Honey, we just got up,” Reiko replied.

“Yep, that’s exactly why I’m tired,” Takamaru rebutted.

“I believe I will go to the deck and inspect the view of the horizon,” Yusuke announced. “Perhaps the morning sun on the ocean’s surface can provide inspiration for my next painting once we escape.”

“You really only think about your art, huh?” Hifumi asked rhetorically.

After we concluded breakfast, I made my way back to my room. Having some free time, I tried to consider how I should spend my day. I looked at the pile of knickknacks resting atop my coffee table, and I remembered Monokuma’s suggestion that the contents of the MonoMono Machine could be used as gifts. _The others probably don’t trust me much since none of them know me. Maybe I should spend some time with them to build that trust._

Aside from the poorly-painted katana, I took the rest of my prizes with me and left my room. Debating with whom I should spend my time, I opened my e-Handbook and checked the map of the ship. I noticed that the map now also featured pixelated icons corresponding to each of the students trapped aboard the vessel, myself included. According to the handbook, Ren Amamiya was alone in the restaurant’s kitchen. It was odd to see him without Ann and Yusuke around, so I decided to investigate.

I entered the kitchen to find Ren wearing an apron and rifling through all number of cabinets, drawers, etc. I decided to approach and ask him what he was searching for. In response, Ren explained to me that he was looking for ingredients to make coffee, but, much to his frustration, he couldn’t find any. “Would these work?” I asked as I handed him the coffee beans I had obtained from the MonoMono Machine. Ren accepted the gift and, as thanks, he spent the rest of the afternoon teaching me about making coffee. While sorting through some ingredients in the cabinets, I stumbled upon a Monocoin and decided to pocket it for later.

When the afternoon was coming to an end, I noticed movement in Ren’s shoulder bag, which he had left on the floor by the counters. Curious to a fault, I knelt down and examined the container. To my surprise, a black and white cat emerged from the bag and meowed at me. “What the—!” I cried, “You have a cat?”

Ren walked over and gave the cat a disapproving glare. The cat meowed several times in reply before hopping onto the countertop. “His name’s Morgana,” Ren sighed as he opened one of the cabinets to retrieve a can of tuna. The cat yowled angrily in protest. “I know,” Ren seemed to reply, “but this is the closest they have here.”

“You talk to your cat?” I inquired.

“And…?” Ren retorted.

I simply shrugged and asked, “Does Monokuma know about him? I mean, there aren’t any rules against pets, but…”

“Probably,” Ren shrugged as Morgana started to dig into the tuna presented to him, “I’d like to keep him a secret from the other students for now though.”

“Alright, I’ll keep your secret on one condition,” I offered.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“Keep teaching me how to make coffee,” I requested.

Ren smirked a little and then extended a hand. “It’s a deal,” he stated as I shook his hand.

 

I am **thou** , thou art I…

Thou hast acquired a **new** vow.

 

It shall **become** the wings of rebellion

that **breaketh** thy chains of captivity.

 

With the birth of the **World** Persona,

I have obtained the winds of blessing that

shall lead to freedom and new **power** …

 

After hanging out with Ren, I checked my handbook's digital clock and realized I still had some time left today. Consulting the e-Handbook’s map again, I saw that Shiro Hatori was in the Utimate Lucky Student's lab. Curious about what he was up to, I decided to meet him there. I entered the lab to find Shiro curiously eyeing the slot machines. “Ah, did you come here to try the MonoMono Machine?” Shiro asked. “I’ve been debating using it myself. I’ve stumbled across a number of Monocoins, but I believe I could use them to greater effect if I could win more with these slot machines.”

“That’s not a bad idea if you’re lucky,” I admitted. “It’s a gamble, though.”

“That’s the problem, actually,” Shiro muttered. “As the Ultimate Moral Compass, gambling goes against my sense of aesthetics. Do I adhere to my morals even in trying times as these, or do desperate times call for desperate measures for the sake of the greater good? I’d prefer to keep my hands clean.”

“Is that what the gloves are for?” I teasingly asked.

“You could say that, yes,” Shiro responded in a completely serious tone.

Unsure of how to respond, I jokingly offered him the hand sanitizer I had won from the MonoMono Machine the previous day. “Well,” I started, “if you’re worried about that, you could always just use this.”

Shiro chuckled a bit and accepted the gift. I spent the remainder of the evening debating the morality of gambling with Shiro, and eventually I watched him play a few rounds of the slots. Shiro managed to laugh after losing the last of his Monocoins, and I used the Monocoin I had found in the kitchen to win a small voodoo doll from the MonoMono Machine. Afterward, he removed his gloves just long enough to apply the hand sanitizer for good measure.

“This might be a little out there,” I stated, “but how do you feel about being a transfer student?”

“What do you mean?” Shiro asked.

“Ren and the others all seem to know each other, but the two of us are strangers to everyone here. Honestly, I’ve felt kind of isolated, like an island alone in a vast sea,” I confided.

“What a fitting metaphor for the Ultimate Adventurer,” Shiro chuckled. “Honestly, I try not to think of anyone as strangers. We’re in this together, and that means I consider each and every one of them to be my dear friend, even those who don’t seem to trust me quite yet.”

“That’s pretty grand,” I admired. “You really are the Ultimate Moral Compass. It’s a wonder you were transferred in and not asked to join Hope’s Peak from the start.”

Shiro looked down and seemed to consider my words for a moment. “Back then, I wasn’t someone who could be considered the Ultimate Moral Compass… I was—” Shiro hesitated. “Let’s just say I did a lot of things I’m not proud of. I had a fight with my father before transferring here from Kodaka Academy, and that shaped me into the man I’ve become today.”

“Are you close to your father then?” I wondered.

“My father’s in jail…” Shiro admitted without raising his head to face me.

“Sorry,” I apologized, “I’ll stop prying.”

“It’s fine,” Shiro assured me. “As I said, I consider you to be my friend, and that means I’m willing to confide in you as you confided in me.”

Shiro and I seemed reassured by each other’s confidence. We bade one another goodnight, and I returned to the dormitory. As I entered the hall, I heard a loud thud come from a room near the dormitory hall that Lucille and I had overlooked during our exploration. One look was all I needed to realize that this was a laundry room, and when I entered, I found Hifumi on the ground next to a fallen ladder. The Ultimate Shogi Player was clutching a bottle of laundry detergent in one hand and massaging her head with the other.

“Are you alright?” I was startled when a voice squeaked in concern behind me. Charlotte pushed past me and rushed to Hifumi’s aid. Feeling outdone, I approached as well and knelt to offer Hifumi a hand.

“Thank you,” she said as she took my hand and rose to her feet, “for some reason, Monokuma keeps the detergent on the top shelf, so I had to use the ladder to reach it, but…” Hifumi glanced diagonally down and seemed reluctant to admit that she had fallen.

Charlotte effortlessly reached the shelves high above the laundry machines and retrieved a box of dryer sheets. “Here!” she offered. “I’d hate for you to fall again trying to get these later!”

Hifumi thanked the effeminate goliath and accepted the dryer sheets. Then, she excused herself and returned to a washing machine with a number of clothes in it. _Have we been here long enough for her to run out of clean clothes?_

Deciding not to question it too much, I retired to my room. Monokuma’s nighttime announcement played exactly the same as the first night, and I slowly drifted to sleep. The next morning, I awoke to Monokuma’s annoying morning announcement, which was also identical to the previous morning’s, and I made my way to the restaurant for breakfast.

I was expecting Shiro to chastise my tardiness again, but this time, only Takamaru complained about my making him wait to eat a second time. As we started to eat, Ren emerged from the kitchen with a plate full of steaming coffee mugs. “Are those for us?” Reiko asked.

“You’re the best!” Ann cheered.

“Maybe now I can actually stay awake in the morning,” Takamaru added.

“I’ve certainly been missing my morning coffee,” Lucille mentioned.

“I’ve never had coffee before,” Charlotte admitted with a hint of bashfulness.

“Give her the sweetest one,” Kagami suggested. “She can’t handle bitter stuff.”

“I won’t complain as long as Haruki doesn’t try juggling them,” Kari sighed.

“Oh, come on! Even I wouldn’t try juggling full coffee mugs!” Haruki whined.

“Hmm, I’ve certainly found my inspiration lacking since boarding this vessel,” Yusuke shared. “Perhaps some caffeine will give my mind the stimulation it needs.”

“Just be careful to drink in moderation, everyone!” Usami suggested as Miaya’s fingers tapped away at her e-Handbook. “Too much caffeine can have adverse effects on your mental health!”

“Hold on, the difference d between those coffee mugs m and the number of students n is such that m - n = d ≠ 0,” Noise calculated.

“We’re missing somebody,” Hifumi translated.

“Emiko has yet to join us this morning,” Shiro observed.

“She’s probably just sulking again,” Reiko concluded.

“We should leave her be for now,” Kari suggested. “Sometimes she struggles with large crowds when her depression acts up.”

“We should ask her to come to my Ultimate Research Lab later today!” Usami exclaimed at Miaya’s instruction.

“You know she’s never wanted to go to therapy,” Haruki sighed.

“Why doesn’t anybody want to come to my lab?” Usami sulked as cartoonish tears streamed down her face. “This is the perfect opportunity for me to show off my talent…”

“Regardless, someone should check in on her after breakfast,” Lucille suggested. “I haven’t seen Monokuma in a while, but that doesn’t mean we can let our guard down in this situation.”

“I agree,” Kari added. “We still need her help to use those Monocoins she won to find what we can from the MonoMono Machine.”

I fumbled through my pocket and retrieved the voodoo doll I had won from the MonoMono Machine yesterday. _I wonder if she’d like this._ “I’ll do it,” I offered.

“Huh?” Kagami seemed reluctant. “You don’t even know her, though.”

“It’ll be fine,” Shiro assured zir. “Gale has a knack for getting people to open up to him.”

“Sure, just don’t try anything funny,” Kagami warned.

After breakfast, I checked the map of my e-Handbook. Sure enough, Emiko’s icon was positioned over her dorm room. Hardening my resolve, I walked to her room and pressed a button to ring the room's doorbell. After a long moment, she cracked the door open. “What do you want?” she muttered.

“Um,” I replied, “I was wondering if maybe you wanted to hang out.”

She waited several long seconds before replying, “Give me a minute,” and closing the door again. After a few minutes, she returned, dressed perfectly in her Victorian dress and wearing her contrasting, gothic makeup. “Well, what do you want to do?”

I hadn’t thought this far ahead. “Well,” I pondered aloud, “there were some board games in the Ultimate Therapist's lab. We could check those out.” _Seriously, dude? Board games? Could you be any lamer?_

“Sure, sounds fun,” she answered.

“Oh, I almost forgot. Here, I thought you might like this,” I handed Emiko the voodoo doll I had retrieved. She took the small doll in her hand. She examined it from several different angles, and then she stored it in her dress’s pocket and almost smiled. The two of us continued to the Ultimate Therapist's lab, which I was surprised to find unoccupied.

Emiko and I spent most of the afternoon playing board games in silence. Of course, she beat me at all of them. Whether she was rolling dice or drawing cards, luck seemed to always be in her favor. After exhausting most of the games on the shelves, Emiko let out a long sigh. “I’m bored of this now.”

“I would think you’d be having fun since you keep winning,” I chuckled as I placed one of the games back on its shelf.

“There’s no skill in these games. They’re all based on luck, so of course I won.” Emiko’s response sounded dissatisfied.

“Do you not like being lucky?” I wondered aloud.

“Not really,” Emiko admitted, “it’s not even a real talent. Everyone else works so hard and is so gifted, but I’ve only passed my exams by chance ever since I came to Hope’s Peak.”

“That’s still using your talent, in a way.” My response was meant to comfort her, but it didn’t seem to get very far.

“I’m not _doing_ anything though. It just happens. I’ve never done anything in my whole life. Everything just happens to me,” Emiko sulked.

“Well, you did something today,” I replied as I sat next to her on the sofa. “You came out of your room to hang out with me, and that was pretty cool of you.”

Emiko didn’t reply. She only took the voodoo doll from her pocket and began to fidget with it. After a few moments, she asked, “What’s that?” as she pointed to the shelf.

I stood from my seat to take a closer look at the object in question. Upon further inspection, it appeared to be a dollhouse in the likeness of Hope’s Peak Academy. I opened up the house, and inside I saw plastic figures of each of the sixteen students aboard the vessel. Morbidly, a figure of Kudo-sensei lay in pieces in a puddle of pink liquid in the basement floor. Ignoring that, I removed the figures of Emiko and me and showed them to the Ultimate Lucky Student. “They look like us,” I shared with a chuckle.

“Hand me mine,” she demanded with her palm outstretched. I passed her the doll at her behest, and she began to take off the figure’s tiny clothes.

“What are you doing?” I wondered.

“I hate the thought of being made of plastic,” she explained as she began to transplant the tiny clothes onto the voodoo doll. I placed my plastic doppelgänger back in the dollhouse and decided to leave Emiko to her devices. She seemed to be doing better, in her own way.

As I left the Ultimate Therapist's lab, I looked to my e-Handbook to see where everyone was: Takamaru and Reiko were in Takamaru’s room. Hifumi and Ren were in the Ultimate Shogi Player's lab. Kari and Lucille were in the Ultimate Lucky Student's lab. Kagami was in zir own room. Charlotte and Yusuke were on the deck of the ship. Shiro was in the laundry room while Miaya, Ann, and Haruki were in the restaurant. Emiko was, of course, still in the Ultimate Therapist's lab. Noise was in the hall outside the dorms.

I produced the only remaining gift on my person, the set of perfectly-balanced knives, and examined them thoughtfully. _I bet Haruki would like these, but should I really give them to him?_ I thought back to yesterday morning’s incident as I found myself wandering toward my room out of habit.

“Whatcha got there?” Noise’s voice startled me out of my thoughts. I looked up and found myself alone with him in the dormitory hallway.

“Huh? Oh, I just found these in the MonoMono Machine,” I stammered.

“Hmm, I count x weapons such that x = 10,” Noise observed. “That’s pretty damn suspicious given our current situation.”

“Well,” I defended, “it does seem weird that the MonoMono Machine would give us something we could use as a weapon.” _The katana it gave me was useless, after all._

“They’re ‘perfectly balanced,’ are they?” Noise read the case aloud. “Crack that bitch open, and let’s see about that!”

At his prompting, I opened the case, and Noise took one of the knives. “Oh, wow, these actually are perfectly balanced,” he analyzed as he balanced the blade on his fingertip on its center of gravity. “Check this shit out.”

“Huh, that’s pretty cool,” I agreed.

“They’re totally useless to you, though,” Noise chided. “They’re dull as shit. On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d rank its sharpness as an i because, frankly, it doesn’t exist.”

“It looks like the others are all the same,” I observed after taking another blade from the case.

“Well, seeing as you’ve got 0 use for them, why don’t you let me take them off your hands?” Noise offered.

 _I guess he does like them._ “Sure,” I agreed before returning the knife I had taken and giving him the case.

“Hey,” Noise continued, “I’ve been running some calculations on strategies for how to beat Hifumi. I could use a 2nd set E defined such that E = {l, r} where l and r are a person’s respective eyes if you’re not doing anything better.”

I agreed to hang out with Noise, and I followed him back to his room. There, he showed me a small chalkboard he had apparently won from the MonoMono Machine, and he wrote down a slew of equations and charts that I couldn’t even begin to comprehend. I sat attentively and nodded at appropriate intervals while he rambled about game theory and “Project: Asmodeus Eater” while cursing profusely each time his enthusiasm snapped a piece of his chalk.

“Alright,” he concluded after talking my ear off for the majority of the evening, “between plans A through W, which do you think has the most merit thus far?”

I decided to pick a letter at random: “Q.”

“Hmm, you may be onto something. She’d never expect Q,” Noise muttered.

I collapsed backward from my seat on the edge of his bed as he stopped talking for the first time in hours. “Give it a try then,” I suggested.

“Hey!” Noise called to me. Thinking he was scolding me for letting my eyes drift from his lecture, I promptly sat back up. “Thanks for listening to me go on,” he said in an unexpectedly sincere tone. “I haven’t really been able to talk through my schemes like this with anyone since Kudo-sensei passed.”

After a long moment of awkward silence, I decided to speak up. “You guys really looked up to him, didn’t you?”

“I dunno,” Noise started. “I never really went to class at all before going to Hope’s Peak, but that son of a bitch started dragging me in every day. One time I got sick of it and pulled a knife on him to try to get him to back off. Guess what that motherfucker did.”

“He dragged you anyway?” I asked.

“He whipped out his own goddamn knife and threw down with me right then and there. I scratched him up a bit, but I could tell he was holding back. He didn’t even tell the faculty or nothin’. He just dragged me to class afterward, same as every other fuckin’ day.”

“He sounds…” I trailed off as I was admittedly at a loss for words.

“He was fucking crazy,” Noise groaned, “but he knew just how to communicate with each and every 1 of us. I still can’t really believe he’s gone.”

“I can’t say I understand,” I admitted. “I didn’t really get to know him very well, but…”

“But what?” Noise pried.

“Weren’t you the one who said he’d just cuss you guys out if he could see you moping?” I asked.

Noise chuckled a little and scratched his undercut. “Yeah, I guess he would. Maybe you’re not as small a delta as I thought.” I simply smiled in reply. “Anyway, get the hell outta here,” he continued with a smile. “I’m gonna go try out Plan Q on Hifumi.”

Noise and I left his room, and I waved goodbye as he made his way toward the Ultimate Shogi Player's lab. With nighttime approaching, I leaned against the dormitory’s wall for a moment while debating retiring to my room for the night. As I did, a pair of students turned around the corner.

Kari and Emiko entered the hall, each carrying a massive pile of knickknacks, foodstuffs, and miscellaneous junk. “Gale! Perfect!” Kari called to me. “Give me a hand with this, will you?”

I rushed to Kari’s side, and she deposited the assorted heap into my outstretched arms. The weight of the pile was heavier than I had anticipated, and my knees nearly buckled underneath me. “This is… really heavy…” I groaned.

“Oh, don’t be such a baby,” Kari scolded. “Here, just hold it for a second while I unlock my door.” Kari walked to the door of her room and swiped her e-Handbook over the adjacent scanner. The scanner’s light changed from red to green, and she opened the door. “Just set that pile down, and come hold the door open if you can’t carry it.”

“Alright,” I managed to say as I carefully lowered the pile onto the ground. After setting it down, I walked over to Kari’s door and held it ajar as requested.

Emiko followed after me and stepped into Kari’s room before depositing her pile on the floor and sighing with relief. “You owe me for this, Pres,” she hissed as she stomped out of the room.

I continued to hold the door open as Kari collected the pile of junk I had dropped in the hallway, and after half a minute or so, she managed to regather the entire pile. Emiko simply watched as Kari slowly but surely made her way toward the door. “No, don’t help me at all, Emiko. I’m fine,” Kari complained.

“If you say so, Pres,” Emiko agreed, ignoring the president’s obvious sarcasm.

As Kari approached the door, a loud beeping began to sound from the scanner. “Oh, that’s just great,” Kari groaned as she pushed past me and deposited her pile with the rest of the menagerie. “Hurry up and close that,” she ordered as she stepped back out of the room. I closed the door as instructed, and the alarm silenced itself in response.

“I guess Monokuma doesn’t want us to just prop our doors open either,” I observed.

“He seemed pretty hellbent on maintaining the security of our rooms,” Kari huffed between exhausted breaths. “ID scanners, adding the new rule, and now this…”

“I’m certainly not complaining about it,” Emiko added.

“So, was all that stuff…?” I started to ask.

“Madame President forced me to play the MonoMono Machine all evening with my winnings from the other day,” Emiko complained.

“There was a surprising amount of food,” Kari explained. “That in and of itself made the effort worth the time. We’ll have to pick through the rest by hand.”

“What do you mean ‘we’?” Emiko asked.

“I can’t do everything myself!” Kari protested.

“I could help,” I offered.

“No thanks,” Kari rejected, “I can’t sleep until this mess is cleaned up, and I don’t want a boy in my room after hours. Shiro would never let me live it down, and I have my image as the president to worry about.”

“Fine,” Emiko agreed, “but only because I’m keeping anything I like. Remember I won all of that with _my_ Monocoins.”

“You can keep anything the class doesn’t need for our survival or escape,” Kari conceded.

Deciding to leave them to it, I retired to my room as the two of them entered Kari’s. I lay down in my bed for a bit but found myself more restless than I had expected. I checked the time on my e-Handbook, and I found that it was 9:45 p.m. _There’s enough time for a quick snack._

After leaving my room, I made my way to the restaurant. On the way, I passed Haruki, who placed a hand on my shoulder as he approached. “What’re you up to at this hour, boyo?” he asked with a wide grin. “Are you off to see any girls?” Unsure of how to answer, I just gave the Ultimate Class Clown a confused look. “Never mind,” he chuckled as his grin widened almost unnaturally. “I don’t actually care. Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite…”

 _Was he imitating Monokuma?_ I put the eerie comparison out of my mind and continued my walk to the kitchen. When I arrived, I found Ann sitting alone at one of the tables with a half-eaten red velvet cake topped with cream cheese and strawberries. “Hey there!” she called to me as I entered.

“ _Ciao_ ," I greeted her, "you hungry too?”

“For sweets? Always,” Ann chuckled as she took another bite of her cake.

A monitor on the wall lit up, and Monokuma appeared on the screen. As the previous two nights, he was leaning against one of his forepaws and swirling a tropical beverage in the other. “Mm, ahem, this is your captain speaking. It is now 10 p.m. As such, it is officially **nighttime**. Soon the doors to the kitchen will be locked, and entry at that point is strictly prohibited. Okay then… sweet dreams, everyone! Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite…” Monokuma disappeared as the monitor powered down.

“Aw man, I barely missed it,” I complained.

“Here, since the kitchen’s locked, why don’t you have some of mine?” Ann offered.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“You know what they say: ‘If there’s no bread, let them eat cake!’”

Ann’s sizeable smile put a grin on my face, and I sat with her to grab a couple slices of her cake. After finishing the dessert, the two of us returned to the dormitory and wished each other a good night before we retired to our rooms. I collapsed in my bed, and with a fuller stomach, I was able to fall asleep quickly despite my recent sugar intake.

In the middle of the night, I awoke to a soft beeping noise. At first, I thought my ears were just ringing, but after nearly a minute of trying to ignore it, I realized there was a steady, endless beep emanating from my door. _Did someone leave their door open?_ I stood up from my bed and stepped into the hall without changing out of my pajamas, and what I saw left me horrified.

Hifumi Togo, the Ultimate Shogi Player—her body lay lifelessly on its side in a puddle of blood. Her waist was stuck between the door to her room and its frame such that her lower half lay in the hallway while her upper half was on the floor of her room. I think I screamed, but I don’t remember for sure. Within moments, Kari and Emiko emerged from Kari’s room. “Who left their door open?” Kari barked.

Emiko saw me and seemed confused by whatever twisted face I must have been making, and then she followed my gaze to the body before covering her mouth with her hands and unleashing an unholy shriek. Kari saw the body at the same time, and she fell silent as her face turned white. “Oh my god…”


	3. Chapter 1: Trial of War & Murder of Peace - Deadly Life

*Ding dong, dong ding…* 

The sound echoed throughout the ship. Monokuma’s face appeared on the hallway’s monitor. He was leaning against one forepaw and swirling his drink with the other in the same pose as the nighttime and morning announcements. “A body has been discovered!” he exclaimed through the monitor. “Everyone, please gather in the dormitory hallway! After a certain amount of time, which you may use however you like, the **class trial** will begin!” 

Within seconds, the rest of the students emerged from their rooms—still in their sleepwear—and flooded into the hallway. Most of them remained petrified by what they saw. “Hifumi!” Ren cried as he rushed to the body’s side. 

“Wait! Don’t disturb the scene!” Lucille called after him as she gripped his wrist to hold him back. 

“No way…” Ann muttered as tears started dripping down her face. The Ultimate Model fell to her knees and started to cry uncontrollably. 

“Is this some kind of joke?” Haruki choked back some visceral reaction. 

“I can’t believe it…” Yusuke stammered. “Hifumi was… killed…” 

“Someone… died…” Charlotte squeaked. 

“That’s right!” Monokuma shouted as he appeared from seemingly nowhere. “One of you lucky students has become the ‘blackened’!” 

“You again…” Kagami bit at the monochromatic bear. 

“Does that mean one of us gets to graduate and leave?” Lucille inquired. 

“Hey,” Noise started in a voice so low it was almost a whisper, “Monokuma, who the fuck did this? Let’s see them fucking try to leave.” 

Monokuma chuckled, “Now, now, remember the rule specifies that the blackened will graduate _unless they are discovered_.” 

“What do you mean by ‘discovered’?” Shiro asked. 

“Well,” Monokuma explained, “we need some kind of system to determine for certain whether or not the blackened is discovered. That’s what the ‘class trial’ I mentioned earlier is all about!” 

“The hell is a class trial?” Takamaru asked. 

“Instead of listening to me explain,” Monokuma offered, “why don’t you all check your e-Handbooks for the new rules I’ve just added?” 

I opened my e-Handbook as instructed and found four new rules: 

10\. A body discovery announcement will occur when three or more students discover a body.

11\. Once a murder takes place, a class trial will begin shortly thereafter. Participation is mandatory for all surviving students.

12\. If the guilty party is exposed during the class trial, they alone will be executed.

13\. If the guilty party is not exposed, they alone will graduate, and all remaining students will be executed.

“Hey, what’s with this last rule?” Reiko asked. “All remaining students will be executed?” 

“W-What do you mean by ‘executed’?” Charlotte stammered 

“Execution is execution is _execution_!” Monokuma cheered. “I need to give you students some incentive to uncover the blackened after all!” 

“A death sentence seems a bit extreme for incentive!” Kari protested. 

“Hey, you didn’t answer me,” Noise muttered. “Monokuma, did 1 of us really kill Hifumi?” 

“Of course not!” Usami shouted after Miaya typed something into her e-Handbook. “None of us would ever kill anybody! Monokuma must be the one responsible!” 

“Nope! Negative! Impossible!” Monokuma denied. “In fact, I’ll add another rule now to prove it!” 

A new rule suddenly appeared on my e-Handbook:

14\. Monokuma will never directly participate in a murder.

“Adding that now doesn’t mean anything,” Lucille argued. “You could have still killed her before adding it!” 

“Oh my! You’ve got quite an eye for loopholes!” Monokuma admired. “Still, think what you want, but I had nothing to do with this! The blackened who killed Hifumi Togo, the Ultimate Shogi Player, is one of you standing here right now!” 

“That’s it!” Noise screamed as he choked back tears. “1 of you motherfuckers knows the motherfucker that did this, and that motherfucker better start talkin’, or I’m gonna become the next blackened right here and now!” Noise grabbed the two students nearest him, Haruki and Shiro, by their shirts and yanked them toward the wall, but Charlotte quickly moved behind him and wrapped her massive arm around his neck. 

“I’m really sorry about this,” she murmured as she held Noise in a chokehold and pulled him away from the others. 

“Let go of me!” Noise tried to scream as he gasped for air. “I said let the fuck go, you stupid bitch!” The Ultimate Mathematician let go of Shiro and Haruki, and he began to claw at Charlotte’s hulking forearm as he struggled in vain to escape her grip. After a few more moments, Noise started to lose consciousness. 

“Put him in a room for now,” Kari instructed the Ultimate Cheerleader. “We can’t have him lashing out indiscriminately, but we don’t want him to fall asleep outside of a dorm room.” 

“You can use mine,” Reiko offered as she swiped her e-Handbook over her door’s adjacent scanner and held the threshold ajar for Charlotte, who slowly and cautiously pulled Noise into the room. Reiko closed the door behind them afterward. 

“Now, you only have a brief amount of time before the class trial,” Monokuma explained, “so I suggest you start investigating while you can! Oh, and since it would be hard to focus with that alarm blaring, I’ll disable the door alarms just for tonight!” On cue, the beeping that had been permeating our ears suddenly came to a stop. With that final favor, Monokuma turned around the corner of the hall and vanished from sight. 

The thirteen of us who remained in the hall stood silently for a moment. “Well, we won’t learn anything by just standing here,” Lucille sighed. “Anyone who can, help me with this.” 

Ren, Kari, Shiro, and I stepped forward to examine the body closer. Shiro held the door open so that we could see the entirety of Hifumi’s body. With our expanded view, we could see an e-Handbook on the floor of her room next to her outstretched hand. More obviously, we could also clearly see the cause of death: a sizeable knife had been plunged into the top-left side of her head. _That knife looks like the ones I gave Noise, but something doesn’t add up about that…_

“This knife came from the kitchen,” Ren asserted. Lucille and Shiro eyed him curiously, and I gave him a confused look as well. “There are knives just like this in the kitchen,” Ren elaborated. “I’ve seen them while I was cooking.” 

“In that case,” Lucille started, “would you mind investigating the restaurant?” 

“Are you sure?” Shiro asked. “The kitchen is off-limits at night.” 

“I know,” Lucille agreed, “but if the murderer got their weapon from the kitchen, they would had to have passed through the restaurant, and that’s the closest we can get.” 

“Leave it to me,” Ren assured her. 

“We shall accompany him,” Yusuke assured us. He beckoned Ann to come as well after helping the distraught blonde to her feet, and the two followed Ren toward the restaurant. 

“Pres, would you mind investigating her room?” Lucille requested. 

“Sure thing,” Kari agreed before carefully stepping over the body and continuing into Hifumi’s room. 

“I’ll help too,” Emiko offered as she followed Kari into the victim’s room. “With my luck, maybe I’ll stumble upon something useful.” Kari turned on the light in the room so that she and Emiko could start looking around. 

“You noticed just now, didn’t you?” Lucille asked me. When I gave her a quizzical look, she continued, “The lights in Hifumi’s room were turned off. That might be a clue.” 

“That’s not the only thing that’s strange,” Shiro observed. 

“What do you mean?” I asked. 

“Well, look at her,” Shiro observed. “Aside from Pres and Emiko, the rest of us are in our nightwear, but she’s still wearing her day clothes.”

I was so transfixed by the corpse and the wound that I hadn’t even bothered to consider what she was wearing. 

“Between that and her lights being out, it stands to reason that she was killed while on her way to her room to go to bed for the night,” Lucille concluded. 

“So,” I tried to follow, “the killer attacked her as she was entering her room, and then the killer slipped into their own room to hide?” 

“It may not be that simple,” Lucille answered. “Why would the killer leave her body stuck in the door like this? Did they want to wake us with the alarm?” I wasn’t sure how to answer the question. 

Miaya rang the doorbell to Reiko’s room. After a moment, Charlotte opened the door, and Miaya held up her e-Handbook to let Usami speak on her behalf: “Charlotte, let me come inside!” Usami requested. “I want to try to talk down Noise if he wakes up…” 

“Alright, just be careful,” Charlotte squeaked. “He’s out cold now, but he won’t stay that way long. I’m going to keep an eye on him just in case.” 

Miaya entered Reiko’s room, and Charlotte closed the door behind them. Takamaru and Reiko started looking around the hallway. Kagami and Haruki approached Hifumi’s corpse. “Hmm,” Haruki seemed to ponder as he examined the lifeless body. “Lucille, have you learned all you can from the body yet?” asked the Ultimate Class Clown. 

“Aside from the knife and the e-Handbook,” Lucille answered, “everything seems normal.” 

“In that case,” Haruki interjected as he stepped forward. With a twisted grin on his face, he reached down and jerked the knife from Hifumi’s skull. 

“Hey! Hey! The crime scene!” Lucille screamed in protest. 

“Shiro, may I borrow a handkerchief?” Haruki requested. 

“Sure,” the Ultimate Moral Compass agreed as he handed Haruki a handkerchief from his pocket. 

The Ultimate Class Clown took a moment to clean the blood off the knife, and then he held the knife at its center of gravity on his finger. “As I suspected,” Haruki shared, “this knife is perfectly balanced.” 

“Let me see,” Kagami interrupted and took the knife to examine it zirself. Ze twisted it in a few different directions in zir hands and then passed it back to Haruki. “Yeah, there’s no doubt,” ze confirmed. 

“You two are unbelievable,” Lucille sighed. 

“Didn’t you say the knives in the kitchen were unbalanced?” I asked Haruki. 

“Well, the knives I was juggling were unbalanced,” Haruki explained, “but I wasn’t juggling every knife in the kitchen. I certainly wasn’t juggling this knife. There could have been one or more like this that were balanced.” 

“You didn’t check their balance before you started juggling them?” Kagami criticized. 

“I may have gotten a bit carried away,” Haruki laughed. 

_How can he laugh at a time like this?_

“Hey, Lucille, check this out!” Reiko called from across the hall. 

Lucille left the body and approached Reiko, who, alongside Takamaru, was examining the security camera in the corner of the hallway above the sealed door to Kudo-sensei’s room. “There’s some kind of thingamajig attached to the security camera,” Takamaru observed. 

In the shadowy corner of the hallway, I had a hard time making out what the device was. Reiko stood on her tiptoes and tried to reach the security camera, but it was to no avail. “I’ll ask Charlotte to come grab it for us,” Reiko offered after her failed attempt. 

The Ultimate Thespian departed and moved toward her room. She swiped her e-Handbook over the scanner, and I noticed the security camera move. The surveillance device’s lens was now pointing directly at Reiko. “Did it just move?” I wondered aloud. 

“You didn’t notice sooner?” Lucille asked. 

“I’ve been trying not to think about them too much,” I admitted. 

“On the contrary, I’ve been keeping a close eye on them since we arrived,” Lucille bragged. “When someone uses their e-Handbook to unlock their door,” she explained, “the camera turns to face them automatically. I think it’s an added feature since Monokuma seems so concerned about keeping our rooms secure.” 

Meanwhile, Haruki returned the bloody handkerchief to Shiro. “Here you go, pal!” 

Shiro held it by a clean corner and eyed the cloth disgustedly. “I’ll fetch a fresh one,” he declared as he stepped toward his room. However, when Shiro swiped his handbook over his door’s adjacent scanner, not only did the security camera turn toward him, but a knife flew out of the apparatus attached to the camera toward Shiro. 

“Shit!” Lucille cried, but Shiro’s inhuman reflexes prevailed, and he caught the blade in his bloody handkerchief in midair. 

“The fuck was that?” Takamaru asked. 

Lucille, Kagami, and Haruki rushed to Shiro’s side. “Are you okay?” Kagami asked. 

“It’s just a scratch,” Shiro assured zir with a smile. He dropped the knife in his hand and continued into his room. “I suppose I’ll just need to grab another handkerchief to bandage it.” 

“What the hell,” Haruki exclaimed as he knelt down toward the discarded projectile. “This knife is exactly the same as the one in Hifumi’s head.” 

“That shouldn’t be too surprising at this point,” Lucille observed. 

Kagami took the knife and began to fiddle with it between zir hands. “Yeah, this one is perfectly balanced too,” ze confirmed. 

Reiko and Charlotte exited Reiko’s room. “What’s going on?” Reiko asked. 

“That thing on the camera’s a fucking knife shooter!” Takamaru exclaimed. 

“I’ll come get it down right away!” Charlotte assured as she moved toward the camera. 

“Hold it!” Lucille stopped her. “I want to test something first. Shiro, can you bring your nightstand out here as well?” she called after the Ultimate Moral Compass. 

The wounded student returned with a bloody handkerchief wrapped around his injured hand and carrying his nightstand in the other. “May I ask what for?” he inquired. 

Without answering, Lucille took the nightstand from Shiro and moved to her door. 

“Hold on a second!” Kagami cried as Lucille held the nightstand between her upper body and the camera, and she swiped her e-Handbook over her door’s adjacent scanner. The security camera moved, but nothing fired. 

“Would you two mind trying as well?” Lucille asked Haruki and Kagami. 

“No way!” Kagami protested. 

“I’ll give it a go!” Haruki agreed with a chipper grin. He took the nightstand from Lucille, shielded himself with it, and swiped his e-Handbook over his door's scanner. Again, the security camera moved, but nothing happened. 

“Is anyone else willing to try?” Lucille asked. 

“Hell, I’ll do it,” Takamaru offered. He took the nightstand from Haruki and repeated the process. Again, the camera moved, but nothing fired. 

“Um, I’m too scared,” Charlotte admitted. “That nightstand wouldn’t cover very much of me if the camera did shoot a knife,” she murmured. 

“Let me try,” I offered. Takamaru approached me and passed me the nightstand. I took the piece of furniture in hand and moved to my door. Careful to hold it between myself and the camera, I swiped my e-Handbook over the scanner. To my surprise, a knife flew from the camera and jammed itself halfway into the nightstand. Startled, I fell over and dropped my makeshift shield. 

“Are you alright?” Shiro wondered as he extended me his uninjured hand to help me up. 

“The device fired at Shiro and Gale, but it didn’t fire at Reiko, Takamaru, Haruki, or myself,” Lucille analyzed aloud while holding her chin between her thumb and forefinger. 

“Um, can we please take it down now before someone gets hurt?” Charlotte requested bashfully. 

“Yes, if no one else here is willing to test it, go ahead,” Lucille agreed. “We don’t know how long we have until the class trial, so I’d rather not risk waiting for the others to return.” 

Charlotte reached the security camera and removed the knife-shooter. It was apparently attached by a series of strategically placed zip-ties, but Charlotte tore the device free with ease. “Careful, don’t damage the camera!” Kagami warned. “Remember that’s against the rules!” 

“I’ve got it,” Charlotte reassured zir as she presented us with the apparatus. As we crowded around the Ultimate Cheerleader, we saw some kind of makeshift weapon. Its base resembled a small crossbow, and it was loaded with a knife identical to the ones it had fired thus far. Attached to the top of the crossbow was some kind of makeshift clip containing two additional, identical knives. A mechanism that resembled a manual pencil sharpener seemed to automatically reload the device after it fired, and three small replicas of Monokuma, each holding two flags—one black, one white—were positioned near the crossbow’s trigger. 

“The hell is this?” Takamaru wondered aloud. 

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Reiko shared. 

“Um,” Charlotte added, “if it’s okay, Reiko, can you let me back into your room now? I’m scared to leave Noise alone with Miaya.” 

“Of course,” Reiko replied, and she escorted the effeminate colossus back to her room after Charlotte handed Lucille the strange weapon. 

“Kagami, can you and Haruki determine whether these knives are also balanced and sharp, just to be safe?” Lucille asked. “Try to find out anything else you can about the device too,” she requested. 

“Of course, _mon amour_ ,” Haruki acquiesced. 

“No problem,” Kagami agreed in unison. 

“I want to take a look too,” Takamaru enthused as he moved closer to inspect the device. 

Lucille approached Hifumi’s body again, and I followed her. Before we reached it, however, Monokuma reappeared before us. “Hello there!” the cartoonish headmaster greeted us. 

“Is it time for the trial?” Lucille asked. 

“Not quite!” Monokuma answered. “But I almost forgot the most important part of the investigation!” 

“What’s that?” I inquired. 

“It’s the Monokuma File!” the monochromatic bear exclaimed. A buzz on my e-Handbook prompted me to open the handheld device. Suddenly, a case file appeared on my e-Handbook’s screen: 

“The victim is Hifumi Togo.”

“The time of death was 1:47am.” 

“The body was found in the doorway between the dormitory hallway and the victim’s room.”

“Cause of death was a stab wound to the head.”

“No other wounds are present on the victim’s body.” 

“Isn’t this stuff we already know?” I asked aloud, but Monokuma had already vanished while I was looking at my handbook. 

“No,” Lucille corrected, “if this is accurate, it confirms the time of death was 1:47 a.m. The body discovery announcement played at 1:49 a.m. I checked my handbook when it started playing because I assumed something was wrong.” 

“That means she really did die right before we came out,” I concluded. “That’s awful.” 

“We should investigate elsewhere,” Shiro suggested as he approached us. “I for one am going to the restaurant next.” 

“I’ll join you shortly,” Lucille added, “but I don’t want to leave any stone unturned. Gale,” she said as she turned to me, “did Hifumi do anything strange before she died? Did she exhibit any unusual behavior that you can think of?” 

“Um,” I tried to think back over the past couple days, “other than hanging out with Ren and playing shogi with Noise, I saw her doing laundry a couple nights ago. That seemed a little weird since we haven’t been here long enough for many of our clothes to be dirty yet.” 

“Let’s investigate the laundry room then,” Lucille directed. I followed her to the laundry room, and at first, everything seemed normal therein. “Let’s take a look around,” she suggested. 

I began investigating different parts of the laundry room. I found a Monocoin on one of the shelves and pocketed it. Beyond that, I noticed something unusual about the ladder that Hifumi had used to try to reach the detergent on the laundry room’s top shelf. Wondering if it was important, I called Lucille over to me. “Hey, this leg looks like it’s bent out of shape,” I observed. 

Lucille put the laundry detergent and dryer sheets she had been examining back on the laundry machines. “Was it like that before?” Lucille asked. 

“No, I don’t think so,” I answered. “Hifumi fell when she tried to use the ladder, so it might have been off-balance, but there wasn’t a dent like this.” 

“Interesting,” Lucille agreed, “is there anything else in here you’ve noticed?” 

“Hmm,” I hummed as I looked around, but I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. On a whim, I decided to open a dryer just in case, and to my surprise, I saw something strange therein: three shogi boards had been stashed in the machine. They had a few minor scuffs, but they seemed to be in relatively good condition otherwise. “I admit this is probably the last thing I expected to find in here.” 

“This might confirm my suspicions,” Lucille thought aloud. “Gale, would you mind coming with me? There’s one more place I want to investigate.” 

“You mean the restaurant?” I asked. 

“No, it’s someplace else,” Lucille replied as she left the laundry room. 

I followed after her and struggled to keep up with her brisk walking pace. After turning around a few corners, she came to the entrance of the Ultimate Shogi Player's lab. “Why are we checking here?” I asked. 

“The victim was the Ultimate Shogi Player,” Lucille explained. “It stands to reason we might find something useful in her Research Lab.” 

 _Those boards were awfully suspicious._ I followed Lucille into the lab, and she began to search around the room. I looked around as well, but I didn’t find anything of note. I only stumbled upon another Monocoin in the shelves containing a number of strategy guides. 

Then, when I turned around, Lucille was sitting on the mat on the opposite side of the table from me. “Come play a game with me,” she insisted. 

“Um, I don’t really know how to play shogi,” I admitted. “Besides, is now really the time?” 

“Just sit down,” she demanded, and I complied. I looked down at the table between us, but there were no pieces on the shogi board. Upon closer inspection, however, I noticed a scanner attached to either side of the board. There was also a small replica of Monokuma holding a pair of black and white flags standing beside the board like a cartoonish referee. 

Lucille swiped her e-Handbook over the scanner on her side of the board. “Player 1, Lucille Wridge!” the tiny Monokuma declared as it lowered its white flag. Her half of the board descended momentarily before reappearing with the appropriate shogi tiles. 

“You try,” Lucille requested. 

As instructed, I swiped my e-Handbook over the scanner on my side. “Player 2, Gale Rovere!” the tiny Monokuma declared while lowering its black flag. My half of the board subsequently lowered and reappeared with its half of the shogi tiles. 

“This might be used to keep score somehow,” Lucille thought aloud. 

“I didn’t notice anything like this when we saw Noise and Hifumi playing,” I added. 

“Their game had already begun when we walked in,” Lucille explained. “By that point, it just looked like a normal game of shogi.” 

“I see,” I agreed out of habit while trying to keep up with her logic. 

“I wonder how the others are doing,” Lucille murmured as she opened her e-Handbook. “Hmm, that’s odd,” she muttered to herself after staring at her handbook for a moment. 

“What’s odd?” I inquired. 

“Try opening the map on your e-Handbook,” she requested. 

I opened my e-Handbook and tapped the map icon as instructed, but the handbook merely gave me a message declaring, “Map Unavailable!” 

“I guess we can’t access the map during the investigation,” she observed. 

*Ding dong, dong ding*

Monokuma appeared on the monitor in the lab. “So, ah…” he started, “I’m getting tired of waiting. Let’s just get this show on the road, shall we? It’s time for the class trial! Allow me to direct you to the proper location for the proceedings. Please go through the red door on the deck of the _S.S. Titanokuma-A_! Puhuhu. See you soon!” 

“Damn, we’re out of time, huh?” Lucille concluded. 

“We didn’t get to investigate the restaurant,” I lamented. 

“That’s fine,” Lucille assured me. “I trust the others to fill in the gaps. For now, we should go. The new rules said participation was mandatory.” 

I followed Lucille out of the Ultimate Shogi Player's lab and onto the deck of the cruiser. There, we met with the rest of our classmates, who had all gathered before the pair of red doors Charlotte had discovered during our initial investigation of the ship. Charlotte, however, was absent, as were Noise and Miaya. Noticing this, Yusuke spoke up. “Where are the others?” he inquired. 

“Won’t it be bad if they don’t show?” Ann wondered aloud. 

Lucille took this time to approach Kari and Emiko. “Did you two find anything in the victim’s room?” she asked. 

“It seems like Hifumi washed all of the clothes in her wardrobe before wearing them,” Kari observed. 

“Most of them were still folded on her coffee table,” Emiko explained. 

“Nothing else was out of the ordinary though, unfortunately,” Kari admitted. 

“Nothing seemed out of place in the restaurant either,” Shiro chimed in. 

“That’s fine,” Lucille assured them. “Lack of evidence is still evidence of lack.” 

“They sure are takin’ their sweet time,” Takamaru added with regards to the absentees. 

Just as we began to worry, the remaining three students arrived. “I’m sorry we’re late, everyone,” Charlotte squeaked. 

“Don’t worry, everybody! We calmed Noise down after he woke up!” Usami assured the crowd on Miaya’s behalf. 

“Listen up,” Noise announced. “I don’t care who you are. Whichever 1 of you lambdas did this, mark my words. Your hours are fuckin’ numbered. If Monokuma doesn’t execute you for this, you can bet your sorry ass I’ll do it myself.” 

“You call that calm?” Shiro wondered. 

“You’re wrong, Noise,” Lucille retorted. “None of us killed Hifumi.” 

A number of shocked glances turned in Lucille’s direction. “Are you sure?” Kari asked. 

“Monokuma did this to sow distrust among us,” Lucille claimed, “and I’m going to use my talent to prove it.” 

“Your talent?” I asked. 

“Oh, that’s right. I forgot to tell you my talent when we first met,” Lucille explained. “I’m actually the Ultimate Prosecuting Attorney.” 

As if punctuating Lucille’s bold assertion, the red doors before us swung open. Their motion beckoned us inside, and feeling we had no choice, we cooperated and entered a room resembling a freight elevator. My suspicions were confirmed when the elevator began to descend into the depths of the _S.S. Titanokuma-A_ . We stood there silently in the elevator for what felt like an eternity. _Is Lucille right? Is Monokuma really responsible?_ I wanted to believe no one here would have killed Hifumi, but for some reason, I just couldn’t convince myself. _Maybe Monokuma’s tricks really are getting to me._

When the elevator lurched to a halt, its doors opened to a large, cylindrical room resembling an odd sort of trial ground. Looming over the room was a luxurious, wooden chair with velvet accents, upon which sat Monokuma himself. Subject to his gaze below was a ring of sixteen semicircular podiums. Each podium was positioned over a circular, elevated platform large enough to fit a single person. “Everyone, please move to your assigned seats,” Monokuma instructed. 

After some shuffling around, each of us found the podium with our own name on the inside, and we stood on the platforms connected to them. “Do they really count as assigned seats if we’re standing?” Reiko wondered aloud. 

Ignoring her question, Monokuma continued, “Let’s begin with a basic explanation of the class trial. The spotless, those of you who are innocent, will spend the trial trying to determine the identity of the blackened, the person who killed the victim. After the trial, your votes will determine the results. If you can figure out ‘whodunnit,’ only the blackened will receive punishment, but if you pick the wrong one… then I’ll punish everyone _besides_ the blackened, and the one that deceived everyone else will graduate!”

“Before we get started, what the fuck is that outlier?” Noise asked as he gestured toward one of the podiums, which was vacant aside from a picture featuring the face of Hifumi Togo, the deceased. The picture had a red X painted over it to mark her absence. 

“Well, I’d hate for the victim to be left out just because they died,” Monokuma chuckled. “The class trial is meant to be an experience for the whole class to share!” 

“Not gonna lie, that’s effed up,” Takamaru added. 

“I-It gives me the willies,” Charlotte stammered. 

“Don’t let it psych you out,” Lucille urged. “It’s just another one of Monokuma’s games.” 

“I think that about does it for the buildup,” Monokuma expressed. “Why don’t we start off simple with the case summary? Now then, let the class trial begin!” 

 _Ready or not, the time is now. We have to prove once and for all who’s responsible, or if Monokuma really is behind this murder as well._ As the trial began, my mind shuffled through all of the evidence I had gathered throughout the investigation. Each student began speaking in turn, and the trial ground felt as though it were spinning as my attention quickly shifted from one speaker to the next. 

Ann: A case summary, huh? Where should we start? 

Ren: Let’s go over what we know so far. 

Yusuke: To begin with the obvious, the victim was Hifumi Togo.

Lucille: She was killed in the doorway between the dormitory hallway and her room at 1:47 a.m. 

Shiro: Her cause of death was a stab wound to the head, so her death was likely instantaneous. 

Usami: Then, someone stabbed her as **she was leaving her room**? 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

All eyes suddenly turned to me as I refuted Miaya’s vicarious claim. Ignoring the pressure from fourteen pairs of eyes, I continued with my explanation. 

Gale: When we found the victim’s body, the lights in her room were still off, and she was fully dressed in her day clothes. It was as though she hadn’t gone to bed yet. I think she was killed as she was returning to her room for the night. 

Yusuke: Could she not just as easily have gotten dressed and turned off her light before leaving her room? 

Shiro: Maybe, but with the way her body was positioned, doesn’t it look more like she fell forward into her room as she was entering? 

Ann: Couldn’t she have also fallen backward into it as she was leaving? 

Lucille: That might be possible, but it does seem more likely for her to be entering her room at that hour than for her to be leaving it. Regardless, I agree with Gale, but my reasoning is different. It has to do with how the murder weapon relates to the placement of her body. 

Kari: Well then, let’s hear it. Our next topic of discussion is the murder weapon. 

Haruki: You’re talking about the knife, right? 

Kagami: What else would they be talking about, dingus? 

Noise: What the fuck does the knife have to do with the placement of her body? 

Yusuke: Regardless of whether the victim was entering or leaving her room, if the killer were in the hallway, the victim’s body could have fallen forward or backward into the room. 

Emiko: However, aside from Gale, Kari, and myself, there was no one in the hallway when we discovered the body just two minutes later. 

Takamaru: Everybody rushed out of their rooms right after that too. 

Noise: So what? 2 minutes is more than enough time. The killer just went back into their room after **they stabbed Hifumi**. 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

My second interjection turned eyes to me again, so I proceeded to explain my reasoning. 

Gale: I don’t think the victim was stabbed by the killer directly. We have pretty substantial evidence to back that up. 

Haruki: By evidence, I assume you mean that contraption attached to the security camera in the hallway. 

Lucille: Yes, that’s exactly where I was going with this. The device was a crossbow rigged to fire knives like the one found in the victim’s skull. 

Yusuke: Was such a thing really attached to the security camera? 

Kagami: Yeah, **most of us saw it** while you guys were investigating the restaurant. 

Shiro: If the killer used the camera, **they wouldn’t be in the hallway** at the time of the murder. 

Kari: Hold on. This might sound ridiculous, but bear with me. 

Takamaru: Alright, Pres, we’re listening. 

Kari: Are we absolutely sure that device was used to kill Hifumi? 

Haruki: It’d be a pretty funny coincidence if it weren’t. 

Kari: I’m just saying its presence doesn’t necessarily disprove that the victim was stabbed. 

Reiko: So what? The killer just stabbed Hifumi and left?

Shiro: I suppose it’s still theoretically possible that **the killer left the victim’s body in the doorway.**

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

I took a moment to gather my thoughts before continuing. 

Gale: Why would the killer leave the victim’s body in the doorway? With the alarm going off, that would practically be begging us to come investigate the scene of the crime. 

Reiko: You may have a point, but would the killer even have known about the doors’ alarm? 

Emiko: Gale, Kari, and I only knew about it because Gale held Kari’s door open for too long. 

Lucille: No, Gale is right. Even if we ignore the alarm, it wouldn’t make sense for the killer to leave the body like that. Since the door to Hifumi’s room was already open, the killer could have moved the body into the room and closed the door. Furthermore, the victim’s e-Handbook had fallen inside the room as well, so there would have been no way for any of us to enter the room and find the body once the door automatically locked. 

Charlotte: If we never found the body, there wouldn’t have ever been that announcement. 

Kagami: With no body discovery announcement, **there may not have been a class trial**. 

Shiro: If there’s no class trial, there’s no system by which the victim may graduate. That would overturn the obvious motive behind the murder. 

Kari: Then we can conclude that even if the victim were stabbed, in order for them to graduate, **the** **killer would want us to find the body**. 

**_Lucille: Objection!_ **

This time, all eyes, including my own, turned to Lucille. The Ultimate Prosecutor continued her argument. 

Lucille: The rules about the body discovery announcement and the class trial weren’t added until after the murder occurred. The killer had no way of knowing about them. However, before that, the rules still stated that the blackened gets to graduate “unless they are discovered.” It stands to reason then that the killer would do everything they could to avoid being discovered. 

Haruki: That is unless the killer is Monokuma. 

Lucille: What do you mean?

Haruki: You said earlier that you believed Monokuma to be the true killer, correct? If that were the case, his goal would be to hold the class trial and frame one of us for Hifumi’s murder. 

Usami: Then, either way, Monokuma has to be the killer!

Ren: How so? 

Usami: If the victim was stabbed, Monokuma is the only one with reason to leave the body out!

Takamaru: What if the victim were killed by the crossbow?

Usami: Then Monokuma must have done that too. **No one else could aim the security camera**. 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Kagami: You’re seriously jumping in again?

Gale: You saw it too, Kagami. Whenever someone swiped their handbook over the scanner outside their door, the security camera automatically turned to face that person. The camera would have turned to face Hifumi as she scanned her e-Handbook to enter her room. 

Kari: Are you seriously sticking up for Monokuma? 

Gale: That’s not it. I just don’t want to draw conclusions based on any false claims. Our lives are on the line here. 

Shiro: That would support Lucille’s earlier claim that the victim was killed as she was entering her room. 

Yusuke: Did you not mention something about the placement of her body as well?

Lucille: Yes, the knife was found in the left side of the victim’s head. Facing the camera at the end of the hallway, Hifumi’s room is to the right. That means the camera would have been to her left if she were facing her door. 

Charlotte: I get it. If she were facing away from her door to leave the room, and the device on the camera shot her with a knife, the knife would have been in the other side of her head. 

Lucille: That’s exactly right. 

Ann: Then we know that Hifumi was entering her room if she was killed by the crossbow. 

Emiko: Why does that matter?

The debate paused for a moment as we all stopped to look at Emiko. 

Emiko: We’re getting too hung up on details. Whether Hifumi was leaving or entering doesn’t get us any closer to finding the killer. 

Kagami: We need to devise some kind of strategy to prove that Monokuma’s the killer.

Shiro: I agree. Right now, there are simply too many possibilities. 

Noise: Proof by contradiction. 

Haruki: Oh, you finally decided to speak up, huh? 

Kari: Haruki, shush, let’s hear him out. What are you thinking, Noise? 

Noise: You guys are so zetta slow. 

Takamaru: What does “zetta” even mean?

Noise: Just shut the fuck up and listen for 2 seconds. 

The room fell silent as we anticipated Noise’s explanation. 

Noise: If Monokuma really is the killer, we can prove it by assuming that he isn’t. Then, for every student s, we use that assumption to prove that s couldn’t be the killer. Therefore, if our initial assumption is true, the killer falls outside of the set S containing all students. Since Monokuma is the only person who falls outside set S, that would mean only he could be the killer, which would contradict our original assumption. 

Ann: I’m lost. 

Shiro: Essentially, we start by assuming that Monokuma _isn’t_ the killer, and then we prove that assumption to be false by using it to eliminate all other possibilities. 

Noise: That isn’t exactly correct, but you’ve got the right idea. 

Kari: That sounds like a plan to me. 

Ren: Alright, let’s do it. 

Yusuke: Okay then, let us assume the victim was killed by someone other than Monokuma. Where does that leave us?

Reiko: If the killer isn’t Monokuma, then **the victim must have been killed by the crossbow**. 

Takamaru: That’s what we decided earlier, right? 

Emiko: Do we have any idea when the killer set up the crossbow? 

Ann: Argh, it’s useless! **We have no idea when the killer set it up**!

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

I thought back to my investigation before sharing my argument with the other students. 

Gale: The crossbow wasn’t just rigged to shoot Hifumi. It fired at Shiro’s and my doors too, but when I entered my room earlier in the night, it didn’t shoot. I don’t think it was there at that point. 

Takamaru: Could the killer have set up a timer or something? 

Haruki: No, Gale is right. That crossbow definitely wasn’t there when I went to bed right before the nighttime announcement. 

Lucille: I almost certainly would have noticed it as well. 

Shiro: Then we can conclude that the killer set up the crossbow sometime between 10:00 p.m. and 1:47 a.m. 

Reiko: I was in Takamaru’s room with him during that time. 

Takamaru: Neither of us could have left without waking the other up either. 

Kagami: Wasn’t everyone else alone in their own rooms for most of that time? 

Kari: Emiko and I were in my room. We were both awake sorting through her winnings from the MonoMono Machine the entire time. 

Gale: Shiro and I have alibis as well. Since the crossbow was rigged to fire at our doors, we wouldn’t have been able to reenter our rooms after setting it up. 

**_Haruki: How laughable!_ **

Haruki’s interjection caught me off guard. I stood flabbergasted for a moment as he began a verbal assault. 

Haruki: You claim to have an alibi, but you couldn’t be more wrong. 

Haruki: You were already outside your room when we found the body, correct? 

Haruki: That means you could have set up the crossbow and simply waited for it to kill Hifumi. 

Haruki: There would’ve been no need for you to return to your room at all!

Gale: That would mean I was in the hallway when Hifumi died. 

Gale: Since I was the first to see the body, I could have easily hidden it in the victim’s room. 

Gale: Isn’t that exactly what we were talking about before? 

Haruki: It’s possible that you were away from the hallway and still outside your room. 

Haruki: You could have come running when that alarm sounded just like everyone else. 

Haruki: There may not have been time for you to hide the body before **the others emerged**! 

**_Lucille: I’ll cut through your words!_ **

Haruki: Beg your pardon? 

Lucille: Pres, think back to when you first left your room. What was Gale’s door like back then? 

Kari: Come to think of it, Gale’s door was still open when we found the body. It hadn’t closed behind him yet. 

Lucille: That proves it then. As far as we know, Gale couldn’t have opened his door from the outside without triggering the trap, so there’s no explanation for how his door was left open unless he was already in his room at the time the trap was being set. 

Haruki: Yes, I suppose the alarm would have sounded if he had simply left it open the whole time. Hmph, alright, I stand corrected. 

Shiro: That brings our total list of alibis to six: Gale, Reiko, Takamaru, Emiko, Kari, and myself. 

Noise: Then the remainder of suspects x is defined such that x = 9. 

Ann: Is there any way we can narrow down that list farther? 

Lucille: There might be one way. 

Kagami: What do you mean? 

Lucille: The knife shooter didn’t target people indiscriminately. Reiko, Takamaru, Haruki, and I were all able to open our doors without any problems. 

Yusuke: Why would the device target some students but not others? 

Lucille: It stands to reason that the killer had not one but multiple targets, or at the very least, they had multiple potential targets. In addition, if we count the knife found in Hifumi’s body, three knives had been fired from the crossbow by the time we dismantled it. 

Charlotte: The crossbow had three more knives ready to fire though, right? 

Kari: Did the crossbow ever fire multiple times at a single target? 

Lucille: No, and considering that Hifumi was killed instantly, I think we can safely assume that there was one knife for each intended target. 

Emiko: That means the killer had a total of six targets. 

Lucille: Three of the targets are confirmed. Can you guess the group the killer was targeting based on what we know so far? It should become clear if you consider it thoroughly. 

I closed my eyes and considered the question carefully. Thoughts, images, and letters seemed to organize themselves in my mind as they slowly but surely formed a cohesive answer. 

Gale: The killer was targeting **transfer students**. 

Shiro: That does seem to be the logical conclusion. 

Usami: If that’s true, we can rule out Ren, Yusuke, and Ann as suspects as well! 

Haruki: Unless one of them simply set this up to make things look this way. 

Reiko: We have to take a leap of faith eventually, or else we’ll never get anywhere. 

Takamaru: At some point, you’ve gotta stop inspecting the plane and just fly the damn thing. 

Haruki: Fine, I’ll yield on this one, but it _would_ explain why the three of them volunteered to investigate the restaurant instead of remaining in the dormitory. 

Ann: That’s big talk for someone who’s also still a suspect! 

Ren: Lucille asked me to investigate the restaurant. 

Yusuke: Hifumi was my classmate! I could never do such a terrible thing to her! 

Kari: Let’s stop pointing fingers for now and consider the remaining suspects. 

Usami: Let’s see… The remaining six suspects are Lucille, Kagami, Charlotte, Haruki, Noise, and… 

Miaya seemed to pause for a moment to type something else into her e-Handbook. When she turned the screen back around, Usami was clutching her cheeks and gasping widely in disbelief. 

Usami: Huh? Me! I’m still a suspect? 

Lucille: Do any of the remaining six suspects have alibis? 

The room fell silent as the remaining suspects seemed unable to produce any defense. 

Kagami: In that case, the killer would have to be Charlotte! 

Charlotte: What? Kagami, how could you say such a thing? 

Kagami: Think about it. If the killer set up the crossbow, they would have needed to reach the security camera. 

Haruki: **Charlotte** **did reach the security camera** on her own… 

Charlotte: I’m telling you **I didn’t do it**! 

Reiko: I couldn’t reach the camera even when I stood on my tiptoes. 

Noise: Reiko = the 2nd-tallest person here. 

Kari: Then Charlotte’s the only person who could reach it… 

Charlotte: Why isn’t anyone listening to me? 

Shiro: What if **the killer stood on top of something**? 

**_Gale: I agree with that!_ **

Eyes turned to me again, and I took a moment to catch my breath before explaining. 

Gale: The killer could have climbed up to the security camera using the ladder in the laundry room. In fact, we found evidence that the ladder had been used. There was a dent in one of the legs. It looked as if the ladder had fallen over. 

Haruki: Hahaha, the killer must’ve been pretty clumsy to fall over while setting their trap. 

Gale: The ladder seemed pretty unbalanced. It tipped the other day too when Hifumi was using it to get the detergent from the top shelf of the laundry room. 

Yusuke: Could that not have been what caused the dent? 

Gale: No, I’m fairly certain it wasn’t dented when I saw it then. 

Kagami: Couldn’t someone else have used it to get the detergent again and fallen over between now and then? 

Lucille: No, I highly doubt that. When we investigated the laundry room, I found the detergent and dryer sheets on top of the laundry machines. I believe Hifumi left them there so that the next person to use them wouldn’t have to climb the ladder again. 

Takamaru: I’m still not convinced. If the killer fell and dented the ladder while they were setting their trap, wouldn’t we have heard them? I mean, I was asleep, but I wasn’t _that_ asleep. 

Ann: We did all hear the door alarm, after all. 

_No, that isn’t the case, and I can prove it. I just have to think carefully._

Gale: Did anyone hear **Emiko's scream**? 

Kari: Oh yeah, Emiko did scream pretty loudly when she saw the body. 

Emiko: You don’t have to tell everybody! 

The room remained silent as everyone waited for someone else to answer my question. 

Gale: If no one heard Emiko scream, then I think we only heard the door alarm because the alarm is designed to sound inside our rooms as well. I’m fairly certain our dorm rooms are soundproof. 

Reiko: That’s a relief. 

Shiro: If the killer needed to use the ladder to set their trap, that would clear Charlotte of suspicion as well since she would have been capable of setting it on her own. 

Lucille: Does that sound reasonable to you, Haruki? 

Haruki: Well, if Charlotte wanted to try to clear herself of suspicion, there were better ways to do it, so I can agree to that as well. 

Charlotte: See? I told you guys I didn’t do it. 

Usami: Alright! We’re one step closer to proving everyone’s innocence! 

Kari: If we’ve managed to eliminate one suspect by considering the trap’s design, we should continue to analyze it further. 

Yusuke: I for one would like to know more about that crossbow. Where would the killer have obtained such a thing? 

Emiko: I think **they got it from the MonoMono Machine**. 

Reiko: What makes you say that? 

Emiko: Well, when Kari and I were sorting through the prizes from the MonoMono Machine, we found a ton of duplicates. 

Emiko: There were even a few crossbows that looked like the one used for the trap. 

Kari: It’s important to note that **the crossbows we found were empty**. 

Kari: They didn’t have any ammunition that could be used as a weapon, nor were there any arrows among the prizes. 

Shiro: That must be why the killer loaded their trap with those knives. 

Charlotte: Then where did the killer get the ammunition? 

Kagami: Ren said he saw knives like them in the kitchen. 

Ren: Yeah, I’ve definitely seen some while I was cooking. 

Takamaru: Then **the killer must’ve taken them from the kitchen**. 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Haruki: There you go interrupting again. 

Gale: There is one other place the killer could have gotten the knives. I won a set of knives identical to the ones in the crossbow from the MonoMono Machine. 

Kari: What? There wasn’t anything like that in the pile of prizes Emiko won. 

Monokuma: Some prizes in the almighty MonoMono Machine are unique. Namely, anything that would make an obvious weapon is one-of-a-kind! Those knives are an example of one such prize. You’re pretty lucky to have won them! 

Reiko: I guess the crossbow didn’t count as a weapon on its own since it didn’t have any ammo. 

Takamaru: That logic is screwy, but nothing around here makes sense anyway. 

Lucille: Now that you mention it, I do remember you winning them. What did you end up doing with those? 

Gale: Well, Noise seemed pretty fascinated by them, so I just gave them to him. 

Haruki: Ooh, that would place quite a lofty bit of suspicion on Noise then. 

Noise: Keep your shoes on, clown. The knives from the MonoMono Machine were dull as shit. Just ask Gale. 

Gale: Yeah, they definitely couldn’t have been used as a weapon as they were. 

Charlotte: Then the knives used as ammunition really did come from the kitchen? 

Lucille: Because of the nighttime restrictions, we weren’t able to investigate the kitchen to determine whether any knives were missing. 

Shiro: That’s troublesome. Then we have no clue whether those knives were present. 

Ann: Umm, that might not exactly be true. 

Reiko: Well, go on. 

Ann: I was in the restaurant just before nighttime to get a bite to eat, and Haruki was there juggling a bunch of knives. 

Haruki: Yes, I was practicing my routine. I just couldn’t sleep well after embarrassing myself the other morning.

Haruki: But I thought it best to practice away from the rest of you since I knew you wouldn’t approve. 

Noise: I’d say that shifts the suspicion to you then. 

Haruki: Think what you want, but I returned all of the knives to the kitchen before nighttime. 

Lucille: When you returned the knives, could you tell if any of them were missing? 

Haruki: In fact, not a single one was absent. 

Kagami: **Someone could have still taken the knives** after Haruki left. 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Takamaru: Ooh, he said it with gusto that time. 

Gale: Ann was in the restaurant until the nighttime announcement. I saw her there. I actually passed Haruki on the way too. She would have seen if anyone had come through the restaurant. 

Shiro: That means the only person who could have taken the knives is Haruki. Otherwise, he would have no reason to lie about all of the knives being present. 

Haruki: I already told you I replaced all of the knives exactly as I found them. 

Kari: What about your knives, Noise? Where were they? 

Noise: I kept them in my nightstand drawer. They were all there when I went to sleep. 

Charlotte: Doesn’t that mean the killer couldn’t have gotten the knives from Noise either? 

Usami: If none of us was able to get the knives, then that means none of us could be the killer! 

Lucille: That isn’t exactly true. Noise had access to his own knives, after all. 

Emiko: Then, either Noise or Haruki has to be lying about their knives being accounted for. 

Ann: Grr, this is making my head hurt! 

Yusuke: Which of them are we to believe? 

**_Monokuma: Let’s give it everything we’ve got!_ **

All eyes turned to Monokuma as his sudden interjection caught us off guard. 

Monokuma: Oh, sorry about that, I just couldn’t contain my heart-pounding excitement! Since you seem to be split down the middle, I have something very special prepared to settle this particular debate! The _S.S. Titanokuma_ is proud to present its very own **morphenomenal trial grounds**!

Haruki: Oh man! The trial grounds can morph! That sounds like so much fun! 

A comically large gear appeared in front of Monokuma’s chair, and the monochromatic mascot pulled a key out from under his seat. Monokuma inserted the key into the gear and turned it. As a result, a series of blue lights appeared and outlined the entire trial grounds. One after another, our podiums and their respective platforms were raised into the air. As they ascended, they organized themselves into two rows based on our differences in opinion. Ren, Noise, Yusuke, Emiko, Kari, Ann, Kagami, and Miaya stood on one side of the debate while I stood with the others on the opposing side. _Did the knives come from the kitchen or Noise’s room?_

Ren: I saw **knives** like the murder weapon in the kitchen. 

Lucille: The **knives** from the MonoMono Machine were identical to the weapon as well. 

Noise: I already said those knives were **dull** as shit, dumbass! 

Shiro: Could the **dull** knives not have been sharpened with something? 

Yusuke: But where would the killer have obtained a **knife sharpener**? 

Takamaru: Couldn’t there have been a **knife sharpener** in the MonoMono Machine? 

Emiko: Kari and I didn’t find any **prizes** like that in the machine. 

Gale: Monokuma already said that some of the **prizes** are unique. 

Kari: A knife sharpener wouldn’t count as a **weapon** in and of itself though. 

Reiko: The reason the knives from the machine count is because they _could_ become **weapons**.

Ann: Is there any other **place** the killer could have found a knife sharpener?

Charlotte: The k-kitchen might be a **place** you would find a knife sharpener. 

Kagami: If the killer went to the **kitchen** , why wouldn’t they just take the kitchen knives? 

Haruki: The killer knew we would have noticed if any of the **kitchen** knives went missing. 

Usami: But could the **killer** have even known about Noise’s knives in the first place?

Gale: The **killer** could have overheard Noise and I talking about them in the hallway. 

**_This is our answer: FULL COUNTER!_ **

As our pedestals returned to their original positions, I continued my explanation. 

Gale: I was in the dormitory hallway when I gave Noise the knives. If the killer were nearby, it’s possible they overheard. Noise isn’t exactly quiet after all. 

Noise: I heard that, asshole. 

Haruki: Care to explain how that’s relevant? 

Gale: If someone else knew about Noise’s knives, it’s possible that both Noise _and_ Haruki are telling the truth. 

Kari: Didn’t you say Lucille knew about the knives? 

Lucille: I knew the knives existed, but I didn’t know Gale gave them to Noise. 

Noise: I told exactly 0 people about them cuz I knew you bastards wouldn’t trust me with ‘em. 

Yusuke: Was anyone near the hallway when the two of you discussed the knives? 

Gale: I had checked the map on my e-Handbook just before I bumped into Noise, actually. According to that, there’s only one remaining suspect who could have overheard our conversation. 

I thought back to the placement of the other students on my e-Handbook’s map. As I shuffled through the list of students around me, only one person fit the bill. 

Gale: Kagami, you’re the only one who could have overheard us. 

Kagami: What are you talking about? 

Gale: According to the map, you were in your room when Noise and I were talking about the knives in the hallway just outside. 

Kagami: So what if I was? 

Gale: Takamaru and Reiko were in Takamaru’s room as well, but they already have alibis. 

Takamaru: I certainly didn’t overhear anything. 

Reiko: Me neither. 

Shiro: I can’t imagine they’d have reason to lie about it if neither of them is the killer. 

Kagami: I couldn’t have overheard you either **. The rooms are soundproof** , remember? 

Lucille: The rooms are only soundproof if the doors are closed. If your door was open—even a little as **you were about to leave** or something similar—you would have overheard. 

Kagami: Why are you suddenly accusing me? 

Lucille: We’re not necessarily accusing you. I’m just saying it’s possible you overheard. 

Kagami: Even if I had overheard, I couldn’t have gotten the knives. Noise said he kept them in his room, remember? 

Shiro: That’s true. Without Noise’s e-Handbook, Kagami had no way to access the knives. 

Ann: And the rules won’t let us borrow other students’ handbooks. 

Kagami: Then **it’s impossible** for me to have taken the knives from Noise’s room! 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Kagami: You’re really starting to piss me off with that! 

Gale: It’s not impossible. There is another way to enter someone’s room even without their e-Handbook. Isn’t that right, Takamaru? 

Takamaru: Oh yeah, I get what you’re talking about now. 

Charlotte: W-What do you mean?

Takamaru: If the person in the room unlocks their door from the inside, it stays unlocked until someone leaves again. 

Reiko: Takamaru usually leaves his door unlocked for me. 

Gale: Well, how about it, Noise? Did you leave your door unlocked?

Noise: … 

Lucille: Go on. Tell us the truth. 

Noise: Yeah, I did. 

**_Kagami: That argument has no gravity!_ **

Kagami’s interjection was abrupt and felt harsh, even by zir standards. I took a moment to regain my composure as ze began zir attack. 

Kagami: Noise’s words have no force! 

Kagami: Of course he’d say he left his door unlocked! 

Kagami: If he said he’d locked it, he’d basically be admitting that he’s the killer! 

Kagami: His testimony is weightless at this point! 

Gale: If Noise left his door unlocked, both he _and_ Haruki could be telling the truth. 

Gale: I want to believe in everyone here. 

Gale: Why are you suddenly so opposed to that?

Kagami: I’m opposed to it because it doesn’t make any sense! 

Kagami: If something that important were true, Noise should’ve mentioned it sooner! 

Kagami: Aside from Takamaru, why would anyone here leave their door unlocked? 

Kagami: **It’s not like** **Noise was expecting someone**! 

**_Gale: I’ll slice through that argument!_ **

Kagami: What the hell’s that s’posed to mean?

Gale: No, I can think of someone Noise might have been expecting. 

Lucille: Wait. Do you mean…? 

Gale: Noise, did you invite Hifumi back to your room? 

Noise: … 

Haruki: Aw, c’mon. It’s no fun if you decide to be quiet now. 

Shiro: Noise and Hifumi were getting along rather well, but to invite her to his room at that hour, just what were you playing at? 

Noise: I was playing at 0 things! 

Haruki: Oh, now he speaks up. Aww, could it be that he’s embarrassed? 

Noise: Shut the fuck up! 

Lucille: Noise, you need to tell us the whole truth if you expect us to believe you. 

Noise: Yeah, I invited Hifumi back to my room, happy, assholes? We were having such a good time with shogi, and I just thought, you know, maybe she would want to hang out some more. 

Ann: That’s rather daring of you. 

Noise: Well she didn’t show, and I fell asleep after a while, so all of you can keep your fuckin’ fantasies to yourselves! 

Kagami: Seriously? You expect us to believe that? The only person who could possibly corroborate your claim is the victim. That’s far too convenient. 

Noise: Listen, asshole! I ain’t said nothing but the truth since I fuckin’ got here! I admitted to taking the knives from Gale when I could’ve just as easily said I ain’t never seen ‘em before! Then it would’ve looked like he was just tryin’ to pass the blame! I could’ve also pushed suspicion onto somebody else just by sayin’ some shit like, “Oh, yeah, I had the knives, but I gave them to x or y,” or, “Actually, I put the knives away in the kitchen for safekeeping,” and none of you douchebags would be any the wiser! But instead, I’ve been tellin’ the truth, even though the truth makes me look like the blackened, and you know why? It’s cuz I ain’t got shit to hide cuz _I ain’t the fuckin’ killer_! 

Reiko: Holy shit, dude, calm down. 

Charlotte: I believe in Sho-chan. He may be a little harsh, but it’s only because he cares. 

Shiro: Well, he has had ample opportunity to deceive us if he were the blackened. 

Emiko: But if Noise is telling the truth, that means the only person it could be is… 

Lucille: Kagami, did you set the trap in the dormitory hallway? 

Kagami: What kind of question is that? Of course I didn’t! 

Haruki: However, you don’t have any _proof_ you didn’t. 

Kagami: It was _Monokuma_! 

Usami: Um, I want to believe you, but we still need to prove it was Monokuma first. 

Kagami: You want proof? Fine! Here’s your proof! I can’t be the killer. In fact, none of us can be the killer. 

Yusuke: What do you mean?

Kagami: The proof is in the crossbow. How would the killer have fired the crossbow at Hifumi? Haruki and I took it apart, and we didn’t find any mechanism that could be used to fire it! Unless you can explain that, all of your arguments are just dark matter! 

_Kagami’s on the defensive, but what ze said just now… Something about it’s not right…_

Gale: No, it’s possible one of us could have fired the crossbow. 

Kagami started shielding zirself by shouting randomly. Ze obviously refused to hear anything I had to say. _I have to break through!_

Kagami: You’re full of shit! 

Kagami: Those arguments are weightless! 

Kagami: Noise is lying! 

Kagami: Why am _I_ being singled out? 

Kagami: Monokuma’s the killer! 

Kagami: You guys trust Haruki over me? 

Kagami: Your brains are so primitive! 

Kagami: Why won’t you listen to me? 

Kagami: Your claims have no force! 

Kagami: Lucille knew about the knives too! 

Kagami: Half of us are still suspects! 

Kagami: **Monokuma had to be controlling the crossbow. None of us could have fired it!**  

**_Gale: I’ll discover the truth here and now!_ **

Kagami: What’s that? You have something else to say? 

Gale: Lucille and I found something that the killer could’ve used to fire the crossbow: the **three hidden shogi boards**. 

Lucille: That’s right. We found three shogi boards stuffed away in the dryer. 

Yusuke: I fail to understand how one can fire a crossbow using shogi boards. 

Reiko: Particularly if they’re stuffed in a dryer. 

Gale: Those boards weren’t just normal shogi boards. They came from the Ultimate Shogi Player's lab. 

Noise: Oh yeah, you had to scan your e-Handbook in order to use the boards. 

Shiro: The crossbow did fire as we scanned our e-Handbooks. Initially, I thought the doors themselves to be trapped, but I found no evidence to support this. 

Charlotte: Then the scanners triggered the trap? 

Ann: How is that even possible? 

Gale: When a player scanned their e-Handbook on a shogi board, a tiny replica of Monokuma next to the board would lower a flag to signal that player’s entry into the game. 

Takamaru: There were a few little Monokumas attached to the crossbow. 

Gale: I think the trap was designed so when a tiny Monokuma lowered its flag, that same motion would pull the trigger of the crossbow. 

Reiko: Were the Monokumas’ flags on the trigger when we found the trap? 

Lucille: Not exactly, but it would be reasonable for the contraption to get a bit disoriented with the way Charlotte tore it loose. 

Usami: But would the Monokumas really have moved when someone scanned their e-Handbook by their door? 

Gale: The Monokumas weren’t directly attached to the boards. Their connection to the scanners must have been wireless. 

Lucille: Furthermore, the boards in the dryer weren’t just missing their respective Monokumas. None of them had scanners attached to them either. 

Shiro: Then it stands to reason that the killer somehow attached the boards’ scanners to the doors’ scanners so that scanning one would scan the other. 

Emiko: Wouldn’t we have noticed if the scanners by the doors had extra scanners attached to them? 

Takamaru: If the killer had the tools to take the things apart and a little bit of technical knowhow, they could have transplanted part of one scanner to the other. Since they’re so similar, I’m pretty sure the hardware would be compatible. 

Kari: There were plenty of tools like that in the MonoMono Machine… 

Gale: Well, how about it, Kagami? You said there was no trigger, but I find it pretty hard to believe that the Ultimate Physicist wouldn’t notice remote-controlled Monokumas attached to the weapon’s trigger. 

Charlotte: Kagami, w-were you trying to hide the fact that the weapon could be fired remotely? 

Kagami: I-I-I’m not hiding anything! I told you I did a thorough investigation, and there wasn’t any—

Haruki: Stop it. 

Lucille: Haruki?

Haruki: I noticed the Monokumas when we were taking the weapon apart. I didn’t know about the shogi boards, but it was obvious that their posable arms were used to pull the trigger. I hadn’t said anything so far because things were just starting to get fun, but, Kagami, when you lie so obviously like that, it isn’t any fun at all. 

Lucille: I wanted to believe it was Monokuma, but… 

Usami: Could Kagami really be the killer? 

Ren: Guess this is it… 

Shiro: Gale, let’s go over the case from start to finish one more time, just to be certain. 

**_Gale: This is what really happened!_ **

Gale: If I had to guess, I’d say this all started when the killer won the crossbow from the MonoMono Machine. They might not have thought much of it at first because it lacked ammunition, but then, as they opened their door to leave their room the other day, they overheard my conversation with Noise about the case of perfectly-balanced knives. Even though the knives were dull, if the killer could find a way to sharpen them, they would be able to use them as ammunition for the crossbow. Furthermore, those knives had the added bonus of allowing the killer to frame Noise for any crime committed with them. 

Gale: For some reason, the killer intended to target all six of the transfer students. Having so many targets made a conventional murder implausible, and according to Monokuma’s rule, they still had to execute their plan without getting caught. That’s why the killer devised such an elaborate trap. By attaching the crossbow to the security camera in the dormitory hallway, the killer could automatically aim the weapon at anyone who opened the door to their own room. Then, once the crossbow was aimed, the killer could use tiny, remote-controlled Monokumas to pull the trigger. These Monokumas would pull the trigger when a student swiped their e-Handbook over one of the scanners connected to the Monokumas’ respective shogi boards. By incorporating those scanners into the scanners that unlock the targets’ doors, the killer was able to pick and choose who to target. Since only our own handbooks can unlock our doors, and since the rules prevent us from loaning our handbooks, they could ensure only the transfer students would trigger the trap. 

Gale: However, this plan required a considerable amount of setup. The killer needed to operate at night while no one was traversing the dormitory hallway, and they still needed a way to obtain Noise’s knives. They got their chance earlier this night when they noticed that Noise had left his door unlocked. Careful not to wake him, the killer slipped into Noise’s room, stole the knives, and returned to the dormitory hallway. Then, the killer retrieved three shogi boards, each with a pair of corresponding scanners, from Hifumi’s lab. They also must have taken the time to sharpen the knives, likely using a knife sharpener they had taken from the kitchen. Finally, the killer took the ladder from the laundry room; they needed it in order to reach the security camera, but it would seem that they fell over and left a dent in the ladder while doing so. However, none of us heard them fall since our rooms are soundproof. 

Gale: It was most likely while the killer was retrieving or replacing the ladder that they got the idea to hide the dismantled shogi boards in the dryer. They couldn’t just throw the boards in the ocean since the rules prevent us from littering, and returning them to Hifumi’s lab would have made them too easy to find. It’s likely none of us would have opened the dryer for several days since we still have plenty of clean clothes. That gave the killer enough of time to figure out a better way to dispose of the boards later. 

Gale: After setting their trap, the killer returned to their room as if nothing had happened. Most likely, the killer wasn’t expecting anyone to trigger their trap tonight. They probably thought we wouldn’t notice the trap right away since the camera is in such a shadowy corner of the hall, and some of us try to avoid looking at the cameras because they make us uncomfortable. Even if someone had noticed the trap before it was triggered, the killer could have pretty easily pinned it on Monokuma as a subtle reminder of the consequences for breaking the rules. Plus, if Monokuma denied it, we would have had no reason to believe him. My guess is the trap was intended to pick off the transfer students one at a time when we all went to bed the following night. 

Gale: However, for some reason, Hifumi returned to her room late in the night, and she sprung the trap preemptively. Since her body got stuck in the doorway, the alarm sounded, and all of us rushed out to discover her corpse. This started the investigation preceding this very class trial, but the killer had no way of knowing there would be a formal investigation or trial, so they weren’t prepared for that. When Lucille discovered the weapon attached to the camera, the killer volunteered to investigate it on our behalf so that they could hide the mechanism used to fire it and pin the crime on Monokuma. 

Gale: That means the killer is someone who investigated the weapon and intentionally hid its design from us, and that person can only be you, Kagami Jushichi! 

Kagami looked disheartened. Ze appeared to be at a total loss for words. The facts added up, and all of the evidence pointed to zir. The rest of us awaited zir response with bated breath. Finally, someone spoke. “Well, Kagami, can you still deny it?” Shiro asked. 

When Kagami remained silent, Charlotte spoke up, “Kagami, why aren’t you saying anything?” 

“Puhuhu, it sounds like the class has reached a decision,” Monokuma declared. “In that case, everyone, please use the screen in front of you to submit your votes! Also, make sure you vote for someone. I’d hate to have to punish one of you for such a technicality!” 

Screens folded out of the podiums in front of us, and each student’s face displayed on a four-by-four grid containing all of our potential options. Even Hifumi’s face was displayed, though it was covered by a red X similar to the one on her sign. Hesitantly, I tapped the icon containing Kagami’s face with my forefinger. Moments later, the screens folded back into the podiums. Then, a television lit up behind Monokuma’s chair. The monitor listed all of our names and adjacent tally marks. On the list, there was one vote for Haruki, two votes for Noise, and twelve votes for Kagami. 

“Congratulations!” Monokuma cheered, “You guessed right! This round’s killer is none other than the one and only Kagami Jushichi!” 

“Fine, you win this round, Monokuma,” Kagami conceded. 

“Oh?” Monokuma replied, “I didn’t do anything. All your friends uncovered the truth all on their own!” 

“Why’d you do it?” Ann asked while fighting tears that were forming in her eyes. “Why did Hifumi have to die?” 

“She was our friend,” Yusuke lamented. 

“You targeted all of us,” Ren added. 

“Don’t make me laugh,” Kagami scowled. “You of all people should know the answer already. That’s because you so-called transfer students… are the _masterminds_ behind all of this.” 

“That’s an awfully bold accusation,” Shiro retorted. 

“What? You think _we’re_ the masterminds?” I found myself questioning aloud. 

“That’s right,” Kagami asserted. “It should be obvious to the rest of you too. Our class wakes up on a huge ship with no memory of how we got here. Some remote-controlled toy starts bossing us around and turning us against each other; he even murders Kudo-sensei just to make a point. Then, to top it all off, six people we’ve never seen before are on the vessel with us _claiming_ to be transfer students.” 

“But our class was expecting transfer students this semester!” Kari retorted. 

“They obviously took advantage of that to slip in!” Kagami shouted. “Those transfers hadn’t even started at Hope’s Peak yet. They weren’t even from the area! How would the masterminds have found and abducted them too?” 

“Did you honestly think you could catch the masterminds with that trap?” Haruki chuckled. “They would have seen your setup on camera and avoided entering their room until it was taken down.” 

“No,” Shiro interjected, “zir idea wasn’t terrible. If one of the students had known about the trap, that could have confirmed zir suspicions that they were the mastermind since only the mastermind could have seen the footage from the security cameras. With that evidence, even if it was a bit shaky, ze could have rallied the whole class against zir target.” 

“But instead, the masterminds rallied my class against me,” Kagami lamented. “How ironic…”

“However, since Hifumi fell for the trap, doesn’t that prove she wasn’t the mastermind?” Lucille speculated. 

“The reason there are so many masterminds is that no one person could be controlling Monokuma constantly and also living ‘normally’ among us,” Kagami explained. “Not all of them could possibly have seen all of the camera footage in the school either. It seems likely the other masterminds didn’t tell Hifumi about the trap. They sacrificed her in order to stage this bullshit ‘class trial,’ turn all of you against me, and take me out of the picture.” 

“How can you say such a thing?” Ann shouted. 

“Kagami, they may be transfers, but they’re still our classmates!” Kari declared. 

“If you were having trouble trusting people, you should have just come to my lab…” Usami lamented on Miaya’s behalf. 

“Well, I guess it’s possible not all six of them are masterminds, but I had no way of narrowing it down any further…” Kagami admitted. 

“You would have sacrificed all of us just for a shot at a single villain?” Yusuke seemed taken aback by the notion. 

“I’d sacrifice as many people as necessary to save my classmates from the mastermind!” Kagami retorted. 

“Kagami…” Charlotte murmured. 

“No, shut the fuck up!” Noise shouted. “Don’t you dare fuckin’ say you pulled this shit for our sakes! If you really cared about us, you would’ve talked to us about this! You wouldn’t have just killed Hifumi on your own like that!” 

“And if I had talked to you?” Kagami wondered. “Would you have let me do what needed to be done?” 

“Of course not, because your plan was fuckin’ crazy!” Takamaru interjected. 

“We would have tried to come up with a better solution,” Reiko added. 

“That’s my point,” Kagami retorted, “and it’s because all of you got so buddy-buddy with the enemy that we’re in this mess. However, I must say, this trial has been very illuminating. In fact, I’m pretty sure I know who the true mastermind is now.” 

“Oh? Do tell!” Monokuma urged Kagami from the edge of his seat. 

“I’m almost certain it’s you, Gale Rovere,” Kagami growled as ze pointed directly at me. Zir gaze seemed to suck all light from my body like a black hole. Never before had I seen a look so wrought with both hatred… and _despair_. 

“Puhuhu, that’s a _bear_ y interesting claim!” Monokuma chuckled. “But playtime’s almost over. It’s about time we got on with the punishment.” 

“Y-You don’t mean?” Usami stuttered. 

“That’s right! _Execution_!” Monokuma confirmed. 

“Not yet!” Kagami shouted. Suddenly, ze reached into zir lab coat and produced a crossbow identical to the one attached to the camera. In a split second, ze had already taken aim, and ze fired a razor-sharp knife from the weapon, directly at me. I was too dumbstruck to do anything, but something shielded me. 

Rippled muscles and dark skin loomed over my body, and Kagami’s knife was jammed into Charlotte’s bicep, which the Ultimate Cheerleader had outstretched protectively at the last second. When I looked up to my savior, my expression of gratitude was met only be a face sniveling with a flood of tears. “Don’t do this, Kagami,” Charlotte sniffled. “This isn’t you. You’re a good person. You’d never do such a thing.” 

“Get out of my shot, Charlotte!” Kagami’s voice cracked as ze barked zir last request to zir colossal friend. 

“Now then!” Monokuma interrupted, “I’ve prepared a very special punishment for Kagami Jushichi, the Ultimate Physicist!” 

Kagami screamed in outrage and threw zir crossbow onto the ground. The tense weapon snapped under the impact, and tears began to stream down Kagami’s infuriated face. “Quit looking at me with those pathetic expressions of yours. When all of you idiots come to your senses, and you realize I was right all along, you’ll praise me as a martyr.” 

“Let’s give it everything we’ve got!” Monokuma exclaimed. “It’s **_punishment time_ **!” 

One of the walls of the trial ground opened, and a metal collar attached to a long chain burst from the new opening. The collar fastened itself around Kagami’s neck, and the chain retracted almost instantaneously to jerk the Ultimate Physicist through the opening in the wall. On the screen over Monokuma’s chair, the words “BLACK HOLE BLAST OFF” appeared in bold, pixelated letters. 

Kagami gripped zir neck desperately as ze was dragged by the chain into a spherical device large enough to fit a single person inside. The device was connected to a cylinder in the center of a massive chamber by a long, metal arm. Once the sphere closed over Kagami, the arm lifted the sphere, and it began to spin in a circle around the cylinder. The centrifuge spun around and around, faster and faster, yet faster yet faster still until its motions blurred together into one massive, spinning circle. 

Then, four more spheres of equal size dropped from the ceiling. Each of these new spheres was attached to the ceiling by a long cord woven from metallic fibers. The cords held the spheres aloft just a few feet from the ground. These four spheres were all arranged perfectly in a line, and their sides were just barely touching one another. The centrifuge came to a startling and crashing halt when its sphere collided violently with one end of the line. The force transferred through the oversized Newton’s cradle and caused the sphere at the other end of the line to swing abruptly in the direction the centrifuge had been moving. After that sphere reached the apex of its ascent, it came crashing downward back toward the line like a pendulum. 

As it slammed back into the line, the sphere containing Kagami disconnected from the arm of the centrifuge and was sent rolling back toward us. The sphere gradually came to a halt before the fourteen remaining students, and when its cockpit opened, it contained only an empty, humanoid husk, covered from head to toe in blood, that could barely even be recognized as having once been human. 


	4. Chapter 2: O Captain! Monokaptain! - Daily Life

The next morning, at breakfast, the air carried a chill unlike that of the familiar ocean breeze. Ren had made coffee for the fourteen remaining students, but the caffeine alone could not lift our spirits. Charlotte had been softly crying into the table for most of the morning while Miaya attempted to offer her support with her presence. Ren, Ann, and Yusuke each stared into their mugs with somber expressions. Haruki and Takamaru exchanged jokes, but their laughter was a little too loud for comfort. No one had seen Emiko or Noise all morning. 

Meanwhile, Kari, Lucille, Shiro, and Reiko took inventory on the kitchen’s storeroom and consolidated our remaining food with what Emiko had won from the MonoMono Machine. “With our current numbers, all of this should add about a week to our time limit,” Kari estimated. 

“We’ve been doing a good job of prioritizing food that will spoil too,” Reiko added. 

“Luckily, everything from the MonoMono Machine has been nonperishable,” Lucille confirmed. 

“There were a number of tools that could be used to create fishing rods as well,” Shiro observed, “though I’m fairly certain this piano wire was intended to function as a garrote.” 

“Yes, its uniqueness among the pile would certainly suggest that,” Lucille deduced. 

“I intend to keep anything from the pile that could be used as a weapon locked in my room,” Kari explained, “just to be on the safe side.” 

“I agree that idea is for the best,” Shiro concurred. 

“Takamaru might complain, but I’ll keep him in line,” Reiko offered. 

“Things are going to need to change around here if we intend to survive,” Kari rationalized. 

“Aw, that’s no fun!” Monokuma enthused as he appeared from the shadows. “Instead of forcing yourselves to conform to this lifestyle and waiting around to starve all day, why don’t you just get out of here by _killing someone_?” 

“Well, looksie here!” Haruki exclaimed from across the room. “I had a feeling you’d show up at some point this morning,” he chuckled. 

“Get out of here! Haven’t you done enough?” Ann shouted. 

“I believe I have lost my appetite,” Yusuke sighed. 

“Well, like it or not, I come _bear_ ing news!” Monokuma cheered. “In the wake of Kagami’s little episode, I’ve decided to add a new rule! Please check your handbooks to ensure that you are familiar with this regulation!” My e-Handbook buzzed in my pocket, and I opened it to examine the new rule:

15\. The guilty party may only kill a maximum of two people during any single "killing game."

“I also wanted to reward you all for being such good sports and finally embracing the killing game,” Monokuma continued, “so as a thank-you from the bottom of my pitch-black heart, I’ve opened up more of the _S.S. Titanokuma-A_ for your killing pleasure!” 

“I assume you’re talking about the door on this floor,” Lucille concluded. 

“But wait, _bear_ ’s more!” Monokuma gleefully announced. “I’ve also come to deliver the next motive!” 

“Well that’s just fan-fuckin’-tastic,” Takamaru groaned. 

“Do you intend to shorten our time limit even more?” Shiro wondered. 

“What? Of course not!” Monokuma seemed offended at the very notion. “That would disincentivize you from killing again! No, I’ve come here to tell you that your dearly departed friend, Kagami Jushichi, was _right_!”

Looks of abject terror simultaneously overwhelmed the five transfer students in the room. Shiro seemed paralyzed. Yusuke nearly fell out of his chair. Ren stood up and stabbed his fork into the table. Ann dropped her coffee, and her mug shattered on the ground. I bit my lip in an effort to remain calm. “Y-You don’t mean…” Charlotte stuttered. 

“Well, ze wasn’t _exactly_ right,” Monokuma clarified, “but ze had the right idea. To be precise, one of the fourteen remaining students aboard this vessel is a **spy** who has been working with myself and the so-called mastermind from the very beginning!” 

“Surely that is a lie!” Yusuke protested. “Would anyone truly subject themselves to such a horrific game of their own free will?” 

“No,” Lucille argued, “perhaps if they are in league with Monokuma, the spy feels as though they are safe from harm.” 

“Puhuhu, think what you want,” Monokuma chuckled, “but the spy is a student just like any of the rest of you! That being said, if you plan to survive, why don’t you try finding out who they are and killing them before they kill you and the rest of your precious classmates?” 

“You’re a big, fat jerk!” Usami shouted from Miaya’s e-Handbook. “You just want us to kill each other so you can hold another class trial!” 

“Oops, you got me there!” Monokuma laughed. “I’m _bear_ y serious about the spy though. That’s no joke. Anyway, that’s all, folks! Happy killing!” Just as suddenly as he appeared, Monokuma vanished under one of the restaurant’s tables. 

“I fuckin’ hate that bear,” Takamaru complained. 

“At the moment, we can’t ascertain whether there’s any legitimacy to his claim,” Lucille reasoned. 

“He hasn’t lied to us yet, has he?” Reiko argued. 

“No, but that could also be part of his trap,” Shiro pointed out. “Let’s not forget his ultimate goal is still to sow distrust among us.” 

“For now, we should investigate the new area he mentioned,” Kari declared. “We can’t let his motives distract us from our goal of surviving and finding a way out.” 

“Well said,” Yusuke agreed. 

“I’ll go get Noise and Emiko,” Kari asserted. “We need all hands on deck for the exploration, no pun intended, and they need to be told about the motive. It wouldn’t be fair to hide it from them. Miaya, will you come with me? I may need some help talking them down.” 

“Leave it to me!” Usami declared as an animated explosion illuminated the screen behind her for emphasis. Miaya smiled and raised one of her hands in unison with her pinkish avatar. 

Reiko retrieved her boyfriend from his seat, and the two of them left the restaurant to begin exploring. Ren, Ann, and Yusuke stood up and departed as well. Haruki tagged along behind Shiro as he exited, and Lucille approached me. “Would you like to explore together again?” she asked politely. 

“You’re keeping me close because of what Kagami and Monokuma said,” I inferred. “You think I’m the most likely to be the spy?” 

“No, that’s not it!” Lucille got defensive at my accusation. “I… I want to be able to prove to the others that you’re not the spy.” 

“That’s a pretty roundabout way of saying the same thing,” I sighed, “but I won’t object.” 

“I’m going to stay here for a bit if that’s okay,” Charlotte murmured. “I’ll catch up.” 

“Are you sure?” Lucille wondered. 

“Yeah,” Charlotte assured her, “I just need to be alone for a minute.” Charlotte clutched her wounded bicep. Kari had since bandaged and disinfected her injury with a first aid kit she’d obtained from the MonoMono Machine, but being shot by her dear friend had apparently caused more mental harm to the gentle giant than physical. 

Lucille and I left the restaurant and made our way down the halls of the first floor. We came to the hall that had previously been a dead end, blocked by the large door featuring Monokuma’s face. The door had been raised to reveal a staircase leading downward. We descended to the next floor of the vessel to find even more winding halls. 

After picking a direction at random, we shortly came to a door that featured a picture of two triangular, theatrical masks. One mask sported a crescent-shaped frown while the other featured an equally exaggerated smile. “Doesn’t this look like…?” I started as Lucille examined the door from top to bottom. 

“You guessed it!” Monokuma interrupted as he appeared from behind us. “It’s another Ultimate Research Lab!” 

“Does every student have an Ultimate Research Lab then?” Lucille inquired. 

“That’s right!” Monokuma confirmed. “Every student aboard the vessel has their very own lab. However, most of them are still farther down, so if you want to find them all, you’ll just have to start up the killing again! Hahaha-ah!” Monokuma disappeared around a corner as his maniacal cackling faded from earshot. 

“Sounds like there’s another barricade,” I inferred. 

“If all goes well, we won’t be opening any more barricades,” Lucille explained. “We’ll need to plan our escape using only the resources available to us so far.” 

“Well then, let’s see what we’ve got,” I declared as I opened the door and stepped into the lab. 

Inside, we found a large, wooden stage featuring red curtains hung neatly overhead. Small staircases led up to the stage from either side, and rows of benches filled the rest of the sizeable room as if to seat an audience of a hundred or more spectators. In the back of the lab, behind the rows of seats, there was a spiral staircase leading up to a balcony featuring what appeared to be a controller for the stage lights. This came as no surprise considering the number and variety of lights affixed to the rafters over the stage. Takamaru stood in the balcony fidgeting with the controller while Reiko seemed to be exploring the stage. 

Suddenly, the lights in the room shifted to a bright green color. The sudden change caught me off guard, and I instinctively covered my eyes. I reopened them and took a moment to adjust as Lucille called up to Takamaru. “Wow, Takamaru,” she projected up to the balcony, “I didn’t know you could operate stage lights.” 

“It’s basically the same as flying a plane,” Takamaru explained, “and by ‘basically the same’ I mean completely different in every possible way, and by that, I mean I have no idea what the fuck I’m doing.” 

Reiko shouted a series of instructions to her boyfriend, who, upon following them, managed to reset the room’s lighting to its normal hue. Lucille and I climbed onto the stage. “Have you found anything of note?” Lucille asked the Ultimate Thespian. 

“This set is pretty awesome,” Reiko admitted. “Part of the stage can be elevated with a lever next to the lights’ controller, and there’s a hidden trap door that leads into a secret area below stage. There’s nothing down there though, so I think it’s just used to store props and hide actors.” 

“What’s that over there?” I asked, referring to a wooden door on the wall to the left of the stage. 

“Ooh! That’s the best part!” Reiko enthused. “The backstage functions as a dressing room, but it also has all kinds of props, tools, you name it!” 

“Let’s take a look,” Lucille suggested, and we followed Reiko backstage. 

True to Reiko’s word, there was a vast plethora of different outfits stored on various hangers. Victorian nobles, French revolutionaries, American beachgoers, Japanese samurai, British soldiers, Egyptian pharaohs, Aztec kings, Roman senators, Greek legionnaires, Celtic fairies, Viking berserkers, Mesopotamian divinities—costumes from all walks of myth and history were represented among the perfectly-organized racks. 

A massive desk surrounded by mirrors featured dozens of drawers containing gratuitous amounts of makeup, latex, and other commodities. Half a dozen mannequins were lined up next to a shelf containing a number of dyes, wigs, shears, razors, gels, and hair products. Another workbench included all manner of power tools as well as foam, wood, cloth, plastic, wax, clay, and other materials for making props. A final desk sat in the corner under a tall lamp; atop this comparably small and underwhelming surface was a single typewriter. 

“Compared to the others, the Ultimate Thespian's lab is surprisingly well-stocked,” Lucille observed. 

“Well, I’m not just an actress, you know,” Reiko bragged. “I’m also a playwright, set designer, lighting technician, costuming specialist, hair stylist, color theorist, _et cetera_ , _et cetera_ …”

“Talk about multitalented,” I gawked while still trying to take in the variety of tools and materials surrounding me. 

“Talent is nothing!” Reiko scoffed. “Anyone can be talented. My only talent is that I’ve worked my ass off for this my entire life.” 

“Still, you can color me impressed,” I admired. 

“Well, don’t get too caught up in all this,” Lucille warned. “We still have to escape.” 

“I don’t need you to tell me,” Reiko retorted. “I can’t let all my effort go to waste by dying on this hell-boat in the middle of nowhere.” 

Leaving Reiko and Takamaru to finish investigating the Ultimate Thespian's lab, Lucille and I returned to the hallways of the second floor and continued our exploration. Soon, we came to a paper-white door featuring a picture of a compass rose, whose directional arrows were marked with Old English script. “Huh,” I wondered, “I wonder if this belongs to…” 

As Lucille and I stepped inside, we found a cozy lounge featuring a bearskin rug placed before a warm fireplace. An unlit elevator door was set into the wall opposite the entryway. In the center of the room rested a lone, leather chair, upon which sat Shiro Hatori, the Ultimate Moral Compass. “Ah, hello there,” he greeted us politely as we entered. “Perhaps I’m taking my title a bit too literally, but for some reason, I can’t shake the feeling that this is my Ultimate Research Lab.” 

“It’s awfully… quaint,” Lucille remarked. 

“Quite,” Shiro agreed, “it seems to serve little to no functional purpose. That elevator has no power as well. I am unsure whether I am meant to discover some mechanism by which to operate it, or if it is simply a complex metaphor for the insubstantial nature of my talent.” 

“Are you doin’ alright there, buddy?” I inquired. Shiro had been staring blankly into the fireplace since we arrived. The flickering light of the flames illuminated dark circles under his eyes that I had previously failed to notice. 

“Forgive me,” Shiro apologized as he rubbed his eyes with his injured hand. “I did not sleep as well as I would have liked.” 

“Take a break,” Lucille suggested as she moved behind his chair and placed a hand on his shoulder. “We’re all under a lot of pressure. You’re in a particularly tough position since you’re new, but you’ve still been stepping up to the challenges as much as any of us. You’ve earned a rest.” 

“Yes, you’re probably right,” Shiro sighed as he leaned back into his chair. As he slowly began to relax, Lucille leaned over him and gently massaged his broad shoulders. 

“Ahem,” I cleared my throat to remind her of the matters at hand. 

“Yes!” Lucille jumped a little when I raised an eyebrow at her, and she followed me out of the Ultimate Moral Compass's lab. 

The two of us continued down our current path a little farther until we came upon Haruki standing in front of another large barricade painted with Monokuma’s likeness. “Well, the Dynamic Duo finds me yet again,” Haruki chuckled. “It looks like there’s more to come if another murder happens.” 

“We’ll do better to think of this as a wall,” Lucille argued. “There shouldn’t be any more murders.” 

“Honestly, with these barricades, I don’t know why Monokuma bothers with the motives. Curiosity alone is almost enough to drive the killing game forward,” Haruki observed. 

“Careful, Haruki,” Lucille warned, “Kari would put you on house arrest if she heard you saying something like that.” 

“Aw, you won’t tell on me, will you?” Haruki whined. “You know I’m only joking, _mon amour_ . _Je_ would never wish ill upon _notre_ precious friends just for curiosity’s sake.” 

“You seemed to be having a suspicious amount of fun with the class trial too,” I noticed. 

“Well, _someone_ has to laugh in a situation like this,” Haruki smiled. “If we all get too serious or mopey, we won’t have the energy to escape, or something even worse might happen.” 

“What could possibly be worse than not escaping?” I asked. 

“We could lose our minds and leave this ship wrapped from head to toe in _despair_ ,” Haruki deadpanned with a sadistic grin. “To me, succumbing to such despair would be a fate worse than death, so I will continue to laugh and play ‘til my dying breath, even if my beloved classmates don’t approve.” 

“You’re trying too hard,” Lucille sighed as she about-faced. “C’mon, Gale, don’t encourage him.” 

I followed the Ultimate Prosecutor to retrace our steps, and we took a different path from the base of the staircase. This direction led us to a glass set of sliding doors surrounded by wide windows that covered at least thirty feet of the hall. Attached to the glass doors was a white, rectangular sign reading, “No pets allowed!” 

Looking through the windows, I could see beyond the glass doors into a room containing a pool. Charlotte and Miaya stood in front of a pair of doors on the wall to the left of the entryway. “I don’t think this is an Ultimate Research Lab,” Lucille speculated. 

Lucille and I entered the room, and my nostrils were immediately assailed by the familiar smell of chlorine. I noticed in addition to the doors by Charlotte and Miaya, another metal door stood on the room’s back wall. “You guys find something?” I asked as we approached the duo in front of the twin doors. Upon closer inspection, one door featured a blue stick figure while the other was inscribed with a pink stick figure wearing a dress. 

“Um, well,” Charlotte murmured, “these seem to be the locker rooms for the pool. Kari is investigating the girls’ locker room, and she sent Noise to investigate the boys’, but…” 

“You don’t need to worry about it, Charlotte!” Usami cheered from Miaya’s e-Handbook. “Some stupid door doesn’t get to decide your gender!” 

At a second glance, each door had an adjacent scanner like the ones connected to our dorm rooms. Experimentally, Lucille swiped her e-Handbook over the scanner by the boys’ locker room. The red light on the scanner beeped angrily in reply. When she swiped her handbook over the girls’ scanner, however, the scanner’s light turned green, and the door clicked as though it were unlocking. After a few seconds, the door locked again. “We can only enter the locker rooms corresponding to our respective genders as designated by our e-Handbooks, then,” Lucille deduced. “Did the girls’ locker room deny you entry?” she asked Charlotte plainly. 

“Well, u-uh, I h-haven’t r-really tried yet…” Charlotte stammered. 

“It’s only going to keep bothering you if you don’t give it a try!” Usami cheered. Miaya typed furiously into her e-Handbook again before showing us the screen and allowing Usami to continue, “If it doesn’t let you in, that just means Monokuma’s a big dummy!” 

“Yeah…” Charlotte murmured. “Yeah, you’re right! That dumb bear doesn’t get to decide my gender! He killed Kudo-sensei and Kagami! What does he know? Nothing! What he thinks doesn’t matter!” With a spirited battle cry, Charlotte closed her eyes and swiped her handbook over the scanner by the girls’ locker room. The moment seemed to last an eternity, but after holding our collective breaths, the light on the scanner turned green. 

Her vigor restored, Charlotte leapt into the air with a high-pitched cheer. Miaya raised her e-Handbook into the air as Usami suddenly acquired pom-poms and cheered in unison with her colossal friend. Lucille smiled warmly at her classmates’ delight, and even I couldn’t withhold a satisfied chuckle. “Alright! Let’s try the other one for good measure!” Usami vicariously encouraged the Ultimate Cheerleader. 

This time, Charlotte left her eyes open as she swiped her e-Handbook over the boys’ room’s scanner. To our collective glee, the scanner blipped angrily and refused to allow Charlotte entry. “Did Charlotte used to be…” I whispered to Lucille while Charlotte and Usami cheered. 

“You should talk to her about it sometime,” Lucille suggested. “She could use some more friends right now. Frankly, so could you.” 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I retorted. 

“Nothing,” Lucille chuckled. “Anyway, I’m going to investigate the girls’ room. Do me a favor and check out the boys’.” 

“Sure thing,” I agreed as I swiped my handbook over the boys’ scanner. As expected, the door unlocked, and I entered the locker room. 

Inside, Noise was systematically examining several lockers against the left and right walls. Aside from the lockers, the room featured two benches that stretched most of the length of the room. There was also a shelf between the lockers on the left wall containing white towels of various sizes, and two shower stalls stood against the back wall. “Oh, hey,” Noise greeted me as I entered, “find anything useful so far?” 

“The Ultimate Thespian's lab seems like it has some stuff that could come in handy,” I replied, “but it’s been pretty superficial other than that.” 

“Yeah,” Noise replied curtly before he got back to investigating. I inspected the room alongside him in awkward silence for a number of minutes. While looking around, I found one Monocoin under one of the benches and a second Monocoin in the folds of one of the towels, but nothing stood out to me about the room in particular. 

“Hey,” I wondered aloud, “which room do you think Kagami would’ve been allowed into?” 

“There isn’t a locker room for traitors,” Noise growled. His bitter tone crushed any of my previous curiosity on the matter. 

 _I’ll give him some space._ Deciding to leave Noise to himself for the moment, I stepped out of the locker room. Lucille had already returned to the pool room and was apparently consolidating her findings with Kari, who had joined Charlotte and Miaya. 

“Well, did you find anything in the boys’ room?” Kari asked me. After giving her a brief explanation and hearing her description of the girls’ room, we determined that the locker rooms were essentially mirror images of one another. 

“Is Noise doing alright?” Lucille asked me when we had finished exchanging information. Despite her objective tone, she almost sounded genuinely concerned. 

“He doesn’t seem to be taking it well,” I confessed, “unless ‘traitor’ is a new gender identity…”

“Oh boy…” Lucille sighed. 

“We’ll need to do something about him,” Kari asserted. 

I decided to change the subject. “What’s that room over there?” I asked while gesturing toward the metal door on the back wall. 

“That’s the hot tub,” Kari explained. 

“Oh shit, there’s a hot tub?” I exclaimed. 

“Someone’s excited,” Lucille observed. 

“I mean, yeah. It’s a hot tub,” I defended. 

“Well, we may as well investigate there as well,” Lucille chuckled. 

As we approached the door, I noticed a pitch-black, Victorian dress folded up by the foot of the door. “Um…” I gave Lucille a quizzical look. 

Lucille just held up her hand to hold me back and then tried to peer through a window near the top of the door. “It’s too foggy to see through,” she observed. Then, she knocked on the door before cracking it open slightly. “Emiko,” she called into the room, “it’s Lucille. May I come in?” 

“Leave me alone,” I heard Emiko respond through the crack in the door. 

“I’ll try talking to her,” Lucille stated. “Would you mind finishing the exploration without me for now?” 

“Sure,” I agreed. I stared down at Emiko’s dress for a long moment before snapping myself out of my thoughts and departing from the pool room. 

After retracing my steps, I proceeded down the third and final corridor branching from the bottom of the stairs. At the end of this hallway, I found Ren and Ann standing in front of a door marked with a picture of a paintbrush over an ovular palette. Ren’s cat Morgana was poking his head out of his bag as if participating in the conversation as well. “I’m worried about him,” Ann said. 

Morgana meowed as if to reply, and then the group turned to face me. “Crap!” Ann exclaimed as she tried to stuff Morgana back into the bag. 

“It’s okay,” Ren assured her as he pushed her arm away to allow Morgana some breathing room. 

“Yeah, we’ve met,” I said. “It’s Morgana, right?” 

“Oh, that’s a relief,” Ann sighed. “Have you told anyone else?” she asked. The Ultimate Phantom Thief simply shook his head in reply. 

“Is Yusuke in there?” I asked. Seeing the two of them without him was weird, and the door’s marker certainly suggested it was the Ultimate Artist's lab. 

“He’s been a bit… off,” Ann confided. 

“Let me try talking to him,” I offered, and I stepped past the two Phantom Thieves to enter the Ultimate Artist's lab. 

Inside was a quaint study featuring plain brown walls and creaky wooden flooring. I was surprised at the relative featurelessness of the lab, but there was a substantial number of canvases, easels, paints, brushes, and other art supplies available on a workbench in the corner. On the back wall of the lab, there was a window with a perfect view of the ocean outside. The window’s placement reminded me of the Ultimate Therapist's lab upstairs. Yusuke sat on a wooden stool in front of an easel holding a blank canvas before him, but he had buried his face in his hand until I entered. “Ah, Gale, welcome. This appears to be my Ultimate Research Lab.” 

“Is something the matter?” I asked. 

“Well,” Yusuke started, “I was quite excited about the prospect of returning to my art after escaping this place,” he explained, “but now I seem unsure of what to paint. This window offers a perfect view of the same flawless ocean I had hoped to capture in my heart from the deck of this vessel, but when I gaze into this blank canvas, my mind seems to only produce images of…” 

I pulled up a stool and sat next to the blue-haired painter. “You and Hifumi went to the same school, right?”

“Yes,” Yusuke replied lowly. 

“I’m really sorry for your loss,” I continued. “Nothing I can say can make that pain go away, but the fact that you’re feeling that pain means that you cared about her in a way words can’t express, and maybe that in and of itself can be beautiful.” 

“Perhaps,” Yusuke agreed, “I once stared into the ugliness of mankind’s hearts. I confronted the distorted desires of the collective unconscious, and beyond that distortion, I found a hope that inspired me to create an award-winning piece. Now, I suppose I’m wondering if that hope lies beyond despair as well as desire, or if this despair is simply what lay beyond that hope.” 

“I don’t know the answer to that,” I admitted, “but I think those feelings are what you should be painting. There’s a sea of infinite possibility out there, after all. It’s up to us to sail toward hope’s horizon or sink into the depths of despair.” 

“You are rather eloquent when you wish to be,” Yusuke chuckled. 

“Well, if I’m honest, I would rather be called the Ultimate Linguist,” I laughed along. 

“No, the Ultimate Adventurer is an enviable title,” Yusuke assured me. “You must tell me of your adventures sometime. Perhaps within them I can find even more inspiration.” 

“I’m sure they’re nothing compared to what you’ve seen as a Phantom Thief,” I acknowledged, “and they’re certainly nothing compared to this.” 

“Nonsense,” Yusuke corrected me, “I insist.” 

“Alright, count on it,” I assured him. Then, bidding him farewell, I stepped out of the Ultimate Artist's lab. 

“How’d it go?” Ren asked me. He, Ann, and Morgana seemed to be waiting impatiently outside the door. 

“He’s still trying to find inspiration,” I told them, “but I think he’s cheered up a bit.” 

“I’ll take it,” Ann smiled. 

Then, from behind them, I saw Lucille approaching from down the hall. Morgana hid in Ren’s bag once he heard her footsteps, and Ren and Ann turned to face her. “Is this the Ultimate Artist's lab?” she asked. 

“Sure is,” Ann affirmed. 

“That seems to be everything on this floor then,” Lucille observed. “So far, there have been exactly three Ultimate Research Labs per floor,” she muttered seemingly to herself. “If that trend continues, we can rationalize that there are five or six floors, but if a floor opens up after every case, and every case involves two or three deaths—the victim or victims and the blackened—then…” 

*Ding dong, dong ding*

“Ahem, attention, attention please! This is your captain speaking!” Monokuma’s voice sounded over an unseen intercom as his face appeared on a monitor in the hallway. “All students, please report to the deck of the _S.S. Titanokuma-A_ immediately! All hands on deck! Emergency! Emergency!” 

“Great…” Ren complained. 

“Oh no! Was there another murder?” Ann worried. 

“That didn’t sound like a body discovery announcement,” Lucille noticed. 

Yusuke emerged from his lab. “Is everyone alright?” he asked in a worried tone. 

“For now, we’re fine,” I assured him, “but we should head to the deck just to be safe.” 

The five of us met up with the other students near the staircase leading up. Relieved to see everyone alive, we fourteen students quickly made our way to the deck of the ship. We reached the deck to find Monokuma standing atop the aftcastle. “I’m glad you all could make it!” cheered the ursine headmaster. 

“What the fuck do you want this time?” Noise shouted up to our tormentor. 

“Avast, me hearties! Please turn your attention off the port bow!” Monokuma instructed as he took a collapsible telescope from seemingly nowhere and gazed through it off the side of the ship. 

Following his gaze, all of us turned to see another, identical vessel floating on the sea not far from ours. “How long has that been there?” Takamaru asked. 

“Has anyone been above deck today?” Lucille asked. 

The crowd collectively shook their heads and concluded that all of us had been too concerned with searching the new floor to look above deck. “He must have been moving the ships into position while we were distracted,” Kari inferred. 

“Behold the grand _S.S. Titanokuma-B_!” Monokuma proclaimed. “She is the hostess of yet another killing game, not unlike your own!” 

“The _Titanokuma-B_?” Charlotte wondered. 

“Wait. You don’t mean…” Lucille started. “Oh god…” 

Lucille ran to the edge of the ship’s deck and nearly jumped overboard as her hands caught her against the ship’s railing. Seeming to realize whatever Lucille did, Kari and Shiro rushed to the edge of the deck with equal haste. It took a moment longer, but once the realization set in, Reiko and Takamaru simultaneously exclaimed, “Shit!” and joined their classmates. 

“This doesn’t bode well,” Noise growled. 

“We’re Class A of our year,” Emiko pointed out. 

“You don’t mean…” Charlotte squeaked. 

“Are you getting it now?” Haruki teased. 

Once realization struck me, I rushed to the edge of the vessel and joined the other five students by the railing. I gazed out over the ocean toward our ship’s sister vessel. It appeared identical to our own in every way, even down to the black-and-white color scheme and vicious, red eye matching Monokuma’s on its hull. Atop the ship’s deck were fifteen captives—all teenagers around our age—chained to the ship’s mast. The captives were struggling to break free to no avail. “What is the meaning of this?” Kari demanded. 

“Puhuhu,” Monokuma chuckled, “these unlucky students just held their first class trial, but unlike your class, they picked the wrong one. You know what that means…” 

“Stop this at once!” Shiro ordered as he turned around and swung his hand for show. 

“Objection!” Lucille interjected as she similarly pointed to Monokuma. “I demand a retrial, one with a proper attorney!” 

“Sorry, kids, no can do, you had your chance, and they had theirs,” Monokuma taunted us with a wag of his white forepaw. “Now, let’s give it everything we’ve got! It’s **_punishment time_ **!” 

Monokuma reached behind his back, and he retrieved a small box, on top of which was a button shaped like his own face. With no shortage of glee, the monochromatic bear jumped into the air and slammed his black, cartoonish forepaw down onto the button. As soon as he did, fire erupted from the _S.S. Titanokuma-B_. One after another, pieces of the ship began to explode and fall into the ocean. Windows shattered instantaneously. The hull quickly took on water as the grand vessel began to tip into the ocean. The deck of the mighty ship was soon swallowed by the flames, and the students chained to the mast were consumed just a moment later. 

Lucille fell to her knees. Tears streamed down her face. Kari bit her lip and clutched the ship’s railing in a death grip. Shiro stared endlessly as the flames of the vessel danced in his darkened eyes. Reiko had covered her mouth while Takamaru slammed his fist onto the railing and glared furiously. Noise began cursing inaudibly through the roaring sound of the exploding vessel, and Haruki’s smile twisted into something unnatural. Charlotte averted her eyes and clutched her wounded bicep as tears fell from her bloodshot eyes. Emiko’s teeth showed through her normally-expressionless face. Miaya dropped her e-Handbook and simply stared onward in terror. Ann gasped and covered her mouth to withhold a scream. Yusuke seemed too horrified to look but somehow unable to look away. Ren took off his glasses and simply stared down at the floor of the deck. His hands were shaking. 

I don’t remember if I screamed. I just remember feeling the heat of the burning ship despite its distance. _Should I be sad?_ I struggled to empathize with the fifteen lives meeting sudden and horrific ends just within my view, but in that moment, I felt nothing. I remember looking down at the floor of the deck beneath me, and for some reason, I was surprised that our own vessel was not drowning in a sea of flames as well. 

Dinner was practically silent. Our voices had been stolen by yet another horrific spectacle. When the tension became too much to bear, I took my meal back to my room to finish alone. As I entered the dormitory hallway, I saw that Hifumi’s and Kagami’s doors were sealed off with yellow tape reading “DECEASED” in black letters. The seals were identical to those on Kudo-sensei’s door. I had first noticed the tape the previous night following Kagami’s execution, but the barriers’ eerie implications were unwelcome in the wake of the fiery spectacle replaying in my mind. 

Back in my room, I was unable to finish my meal. With my appetite thoroughly absent, I discarded the meal—plate and all—in my room’s trashcan. I lay in bed, hoping to fall asleep before Monokuma’s nightly reminder of our captivity. I simply tossed and turned, however, unable to keep my eyes closed. For a moment, I could have sworn I saw a crossbow attached to the security camera in my room, but the hallucination blinked away a moment later. Kagami’s own broken crossbow still lay on my coffee table, where I had left it after taking it back following the execution, next to the gold katana. 

To my chagrin, Monokuma’s nighttime announcement sounded throughout my room. When it did, my e-Handbook buzzed as if I had received a text message. I opened the handbook and noticed that a new rule had been added:

16\. Swimming is prohibited in the pool during nighttime. Touching the water during nighttime is also against the school rules.

 _I wonder what that’s about._ Regardless, afterward, I fell soundly asleep. The next morning, I awoke to an uncomfortable hunger. Apparently, my body was not in agreement with my decision to forego half my dinner the night before. Monokuma’s morning announcement played through my room’s monitor, and I subsequently rose from my bed, got dressed, took a shower, and made my way to the restaurant for breakfast. 

This morning, at the restaurant, everyone was accounted for. However, the four tables that were usually pushed together had been separated into two groups. Kari, Shiro, Lucille, Charlotte, Miaya, and Reiko leaned against or stood in front of one pair of tables. Ren, Ann, Yusuke, Noise, Haruki, Takamaru, and Emiko sat around the other pair of tables and seemed to be listening attentively to the other group. “Ah, you’re here,” Kari proclaimed as I entered the restaurant. “Then let’s begin.” 

“Um, what exactly’s going on?” I asked. 

“The pres is on a fuckin’ soapbox,” Noise groaned. 

“Just hear us out,” Shiro pleaded. “Something like this will be instrumental in preventing future killings.” 

“I think we can all agree that after what we’ve witnessed these past two days, some additional ground rules are in order,” Kari asserted. 

“Not to be that guy, but don’t we have enough rules already with Monokuma around?” Haruki argued. 

“Monokuma’s rules are meant to _encourage_ the killings,” Lucille explained. “We’re presenting rules that serve as countermeasures in order to _discourage_ the killings.” 

“Um, the rules are pretty reasonable,” Charlotte squeaked, “so I don’t think they’ll cause you any problems.” 

“Very well, let us hear what you have in mind,” Yusuke requested. 

“First and foremost,” Kari began, “no student is to leave the dormitory during nighttime. Staying in other rooms or going to the laundry room is fine, but the rest of the ship is strictly off-limits.” 

“I already don’t like these rules,” Takamaru protested. 

“Second,” Kari continued, “students may not take knives out of the kitchen. In addition, all winnings from the MonoMono Machine that could be used as weapons will be confiscated by me. To enforce these restrictions, no student is allowed to be in the kitchen or the Ultimate Lucky Student's lab alone. They must have a witness present in order to corroborate that all kitchen knives and MonoMono Machine prizes are accounted for.” 

“Fine by me,” Ren yawned, “I could use some help in the kitchen anyway.” 

“That rule applies to the Ultimate Thespian's lab as well,” Reiko added, “since that lab has power tools that could also be used as weapons.” 

“That reminds me,” Lucille interjected. “Yusuke, does the Ultimate Artist's lab have any chisels or similar tools?” 

“No,” Yusuke confirmed, “there were only supplies for painting.” 

“In that case, that lab should be fine,” Shiro approved. 

“Third and finally,” Kari concluded, “starting today, every student must undergo thorough therapy sessions with Miaya on a weekly basis.” 

“Not happening,” Emiko said bluntly. 

“This rule is nonnegotiable,” Kari asserted. “We can’t deny the possibility that Miaya’s talent could have prevented what Kagami did.” 

“We can’t exactly prove that it would’ve helped either,” Haruki chuckled. 

“No, I agree,” Ann chimed in. “If there’s even the smallest chance this could have prevented Hifumi’s death, we should do it.” 

“We’ve already discussed this with Miaya,” Kari explained, “and everyone will be undergoing their first therapy session over the course of these next two days.” 

“Noise, Yusuke, Ann, Ren, Emiko, and Charlotte will each see Miaya for therapy today,” Shiro elaborated as he passed small slips of paper out to the students he had listed. “The time of your appointment is written on this piece of paper. Most of you were prioritized on account of your relationships with the deceased.” 

“And if I refuse?” Emiko argued. 

“Charlotte will drag you by force and sit in on the therapy session to ensure that you remain in therapy for the duration,” Kari proclaimed. 

“Why do you make it sound like therapy is such a bad thing?” Usami asked from the screen of Miaya’s e-Handbook as cartoonish tears waterfalled down the leporine avatar’s face. 

“I-I don’t want to force anybody,” Charlotte stammered, “but I can’t help but wonder… If I had made Kagami go to therapy instead of letting zir try to deal with all of that by zirself… maybe things would have turned out different…” 

“Those who do not have appointments today will be going to therapy tomorrow,” Shiro continued. “That of course includes the president and myself,” he assured us. 

“I have no problem with it,” Haruki giggled. “Hey, Miaya, can we play board games the whole time? I do so love board games!” 

“I’m still not cool with this whole formula,” Noise complained. “I know you think you’re all high and mighty as president and all, but that doesn’t give half of us the right to tell the other half what to do. Like, who the fuck died and made you king?” 

“Kudo-sensei did,” Kari answered with an unwavering expression. 

The room fell silent for a moment. After an uncomfortable minute or so, Noise scratched his undercut and sighed, “Jeez, you sure know how to salt a fuckin’ wound. Fine, I’ll go to therapy and shit.” 

“There is an addendum to these rules as well,” Lucille added. “Any of the rules can be broken as long as the person breaking them has the expressed and unanimous permission of the remainder of the student body. This allows for exceptions to be made in extenuating circumstances.” 

“Well, I do love me some good-ol’-fashioned democracy,” Takamaru shared. “Let’s do it!” 

Having reached a somewhat shaky agreement, we pushed the tables back together into a group and finished our breakfasts. Afterward, Lucille approached me as I was exiting the restaurant. “Would you mind joining me for a bit?” she asked. “I want to use the MonoMono Machine, and I’d like you to be my witness.” 

“Sure,” I agreed, “I have some Monocoins I could use as well.” 

I accompanied Lucille to the Ultimate Lucky Student's lab. After taking a moment to adjust to the bright lights reflecting off the shimmering, gold slot machines, we sat in front of the “almighty” MonoMono Machine. 

“Are you looking for anything in particular?” I asked. 

“Well,” she explained, “I want to give something to Shiro. He seems like he’s been working himself too hard recently. I don’t want him to let all of this get to him.” 

“Why the recent interest in Shiro?” I inquired. 

“It’s just,” she started, “he doesn’t know any of us, yet he still works just as hard to protect us, sometimes even harder.” 

“Well, he is the Ultimate Moral Compass, after all,” I justified. 

“Has he told you about his past?” she wondered. “He wasn’t always that way, you know. I think the fact that he changed proves that he’s even stronger as well. It proves someone can acquire a talent impressive enough to get into Hope’s Peak even if they weren’t born that way.” 

“What about you?” I asked. “It’s not like you were born a prosecutor.” 

“Actually, I kind of was,” she chuckled. “My dads are both attorneys. They even met in court when they were on opposite sides of the same case. I don’t know how they made it work after that, but, somehow, they ended up together.” 

“You were adopted then?” I inquired. 

“Mm-hmm,” she affirmed, “my dads adopted me when I was still a baby, and I never knew my biological parents, so the two of them were everything I aspired to be. I sat in on case after case, hearing after hearing. At first, they just brought me to avoid hiring a sitter, but after a while, I started insisting on being brought along.” 

“Your dads must be something,” I admired. 

“What about your talent?” Lucille asked. “Were you always the Ultimate Adventurer?” 

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I’m still honestly not sure what that title means. When I got the letter from Hope’s Peak, I thought I was the Ultimate Linguist or the Ultimate Foreign Exchange Student, maybe something like that, but I guess getting moved all over the world counts as an adventure.” 

“There may be more to it than you think,” Lucille suggested. 

“Maybe,” I agreed, “I did run away from home a lot, but I don’t know how the school would’ve known about that. I never had a missing persons report filed for me in Japan.” 

“What do you mean by ‘in Japan’?” Lucille giggled. 

“Well, America was a different story,” I laughed. “Speaking of which, didn’t you say you’re from America too? How did you end up in Japan?” 

“I actually came in the hopes of getting scouted for Hope’s Peak,” she admitted. 

“You came all the way to Japan for a school?” I wondered. 

“Well, think about it. It’s _Hope’s Peak_ ,” she defended. “Most people would kill to get into that school.” 

“I guess I can’t argue with that,” I conceded. 

After being sidetracked by our conversation, Lucille inserted a Monocoin into the machine. With this coin, she received a Newton’s cradle whose balls were shaped like Monokuma’s head. She took the prize in her hands and examined it for a moment. I silently examined the device and attempted to hide my discomfort. After a long moment, Lucille turned around and hurled the object into one of the slot machines. “Sorry,” she apologized. 

Needless to say, I was startled by her uncharacteristic loss of temper, but her frustration was understandable. “Don’t worry about it. If I win something Shiro would like, you can have it.” 

“No, I have more coins. It’s not that,” she explained. “I… I just have never been wrong about a case like that before. I was so certain it was Monokuma because I didn’t want to believe any of us would actually kill someone, but…” 

“Hey, don’t let it get to you,” I assured her. “If you let him get in your head, Monokuma’s already winning,” I explained. 

“You’re right,” she sighed. “I can’t let this get the best of me. I just have to learn from my mistakes.” 

“Give the machine another go,” I encouraged her. 

Hardening her resolve, Lucille turned back around and inserted another Monocoin into the machine. This time, she obtained a delicate, white rose, which somehow emerged from the machine completely undamaged. She took the flower in her hand and carefully smelled it. “Thanks, I think this’ll be perfect,” she smiled. 

Grinning back at her, I took my turn at the machine and inserted my first Monocoin. First, I obtained a small plush of Usami, complete with a plastic wand and carefully-crafted clothes. “I bet Miaya would like this,” I observed. 

“She’ll be busy today with the therapy sessions,” Lucille explained. “You should give it to her later.” 

“Yeah,” I agreed as I inserted my second Monocoin. This time, I received a rubber sunflower with a hidden compartment that could store water, which was designed to squirt an unsuspecting onlooker if the faux corsage was squeezed. _This one’s obvious too._

With my third Monocoin, the machine deposited a bottle of glasses cleaner accompanied by a small, black-and-white rag. “Kari could probably use that,” Lucille advised. 

Using my fourth and final Monocoin, I obtained an acrylic magnifying glass. The lens came in a cardboard box labeled, “ ** _SCRATCH-RESISTANT LENS!!_ ** ” under which was a description reading, “ _Perfect for combing through legal documents or incinerating innocent, defenseless ants!_ ” 

“Why don’t you keep this one?” I offered as I handed Lucille the box. After accepting the gift with a smile, she apologized that she had nothing to give me in return. Then, we spent the rest of the morning talking about our families and reminiscing about our time in America. A while later, I helped her work up the courage to give Shiro the rose, and then we parted ways. 

After a satisfying lunch, I looked over my remaining three prizes, and I wondered what I should do with the rest of my time today. As I was thinking it over, Haruki suddenly swooped around from behind me and sat cross-legged on top of my table. “Ah, perfect! I knew I’d find someone if I came here!” 

With a bit of concern in my expression, I moved what little remained of my lunch away from his absurdly-gargantuan shoes. “Do you need help with something?” I asked in an effort to be polite. 

“How kind of you to offer!” Haruki exclaimed. “I actually would like to investigate the Ultimate Thespian's lab. I wasn’t able to see it yesterday before we were ushered to the deck for that hideous spectacle, but I must say I’m _deathly_ curious!” 

“You might wanna watch your choice of words there,” I stammered. 

“Oh, you know I jest!” Haruki laughed. “Come on. You and Lucille saw the lab, right? Won’t you please show me? Reiko has absconded with her boyfriend to the hot tub, and I’d rather not walk in on whatever might be happening in there.” Haruki leaned forward and gave me a wide wink. 

“Fine,” I sighed as I made every attempt to repress the images he had planted in my mind. 

I followed Haruki downstairs to the Ultimate Thespian's lab. I kept an eye on him as he gleefully rifled through the vast assortment of props, tools, and costumes backstage. “Oh my! These aren’t just for Reiko. The costumes are fitted to every shape and size!” he admired. “Are we absolutely certain this isn’t my Ultimate Research Lab?” he joked. 

“Well, Monokuma never said two people couldn’t share a lab,” I considered. 

“Hahaha! That was a good one! I never took you for a comedian, Gale!” Haruki laughed. 

“Uh, I wasn’t…” 

“No, this couldn’t possibly be my lab,” Haruki interrupted. “Yes, there are costumes and a stage, but there’s nothing here to showcase my talent—no torches, no unicycles, no tightropes, no trapeze, no chainsaws, no elephants…” 

“Elephants?” I wondered aloud. 

“Though, if we found an elephant, I suppose Kari would simply insist that we eat it.” Haruki seemed to seriously consider what he had just said and then burst into hysterical laughter. “Sorry! I tried to keep a straight face on that one! I really did!” 

“I don’t think there are any elephants aboard this ship,” I replied.

“Why’s that?” Haruki questioned as he moved uncomfortably close to my face. “We’ve already seen many things that are much, much less believable than an elephant at sea.” 

“Haruki,” I questioned, “do you honestly think this is fun? Like, people are dead, but you…” 

“Isn’t the fact that any of us could die at any moment all the more reason to have fun?” Haruki interrupted again. 

“No one else is going to die,” I argued. “Lucille and Shiro will—” 

“They’ll listen to Kari’s meaningless rules that don’t apply to someone willing to take human life, right?” Haruki finished. “That’s what you’re going to say?” 

“No!” I objected. “We’re all going to work together to escape this place.” 

“The only person with that power is Monokuma,” Haruki argued. “You saw what he did to the other vessel. Do you honestly think he wouldn’t do the same to us if we were on the verge of escape?” 

“We’ll find out how he did that and stop him,” I asserted. “Then we’re all going to go home, and whoever’s behind this will be arrested.” 

“That joke wasn’t very funny at all,” Haruki pouted. 

“I’m serious!” I replied. “Don’t you want to go home? Isn’t there anyone you want to see?” 

“Well,” Haruki answered, “I suppose if I did have one final wish, I would have liked to see my sister one last time.” 

“You have a sister?” I asked. 

“Yes, a twin sister, in fact, she was actually one of our classmates as well,” Haruki explained. 

“She ‘was’?” I inquired. 

“She was expelled last year alongside another student for cheating on their midterm exam,” Haruki admitted. “At the time, I was disappointed in her, not that she cheated—I’ve done that plenty of times—but that she did such a poor job that she was caught and expelled.” 

“Hold on. You cheated on your—”

“I was sad that she wouldn’t be part of my life at school anymore, but I suppose, in the end, it’s a good thing she wasn’t dragged into this,” he chuckled. “The irony is so painful it makes me laugh.” 

“In that case,” I replied, “let’s get out of here for her sake. I’m sure she wants to see you again too.” 

“I’ll have to introduce you in that case,” Haruki offered. “She has the most wonderful smile. I’ll be sure to save my best joke so you can see it when you meet.” 

“Oh, I almost forgot,” I started. “It’s no elephant, but here, take it.” I gave Haruki the rubber flower. He examined the thing from a variety of angles, seemed to accidentally squirt himself in the eye, and then laughed hysterically again. We spent the rest of the afternoon trying on costumes and playing with props in the Ultimate Thespian's lab. 

That evening, I went to bed early. I had been thoroughly exhausted by running from Haruki, who had spent a solid hour in a police uniform chasing me with a nail gun and a pair of fuzzy handcuffs. “Stop!” he had shouted. “This is the police! I have the right to remain violent!” 

 _That idiot, what would he have done if he had hit me with that thing?_ I slept through Monokuma’s nighttime announcement, but later, I awoke, wide awake, in the dead of night. Checking my clock, it was only 2:53 a.m. There were still about four hours until morning when I was allowed to leave the dorms. 

I stared at my coffee table, where I had left the Usami plush, the broken crossbow, and the gold katana, for about five minutes until I inevitably lost interest. I glanced over at my trashcan and saw that the food I had discarded there the previous night was gone. Then, out of boredom, I opened my e-Handbook and checked the map. Kari, Ren, Takamaru, Miaya, Charlotte, Noise, Haruki, and Emiko were each in their own rooms. Reiko was in Takamaru’s room, unsurprisingly. 

Yusuke, Ann, Shiro, and Lucille were all absent, however. Finding this odd, I scrolled through the floors of the ship, and I found all four of them on the lower floor. Yusuke and Ann were both in the Ultimate Artist's lab while Lucille and Shiro were in the pool room. _The Phantom Thieves and teacher’s pets are absent? What’s going on?_

True to my nature, I made the choice to prioritize curiosity and exploration over following the rules. I stood from my bed, changed into my day clothes, and quietly exited my room. I took a moment to ensure that everyone’s doors were closed before making my way downstairs. I decided to approach the Ultimate Artist's lab first. _It’s rare to see those two without Ren around._

I crept up to the door of Yusuke’s lab and hesitated for a moment outside. _Why am I stopping now? Just go in and ask them what’s up._ Carefully placing my hand on the doorknob, I silently cracked the door open and peeked inside. Within, I saw Ann, the Ultimate Model, sitting completely unclothed on a cushioned stool near the center of the room. Her back was facing me, and she was staring listlessly out the lab’s window into the starry night sky above. Her posture was modest, yet it somehow accentuated each and every one of her divine curves. Her flawless skin seemed to radiate against the moonlight beaming through the glass pane, and, true to her talent, she remained perfectly, absolutely still, as if she were a statue affixed to the very ground, unfazed even by the occasional shift in the great vessel’s position by the waves below. 

Sitting in the corner opposite the entrance was Yusuke Kitagawa, the Ultimate Artist, who was completely transfixed by a canvas in front of him. He would occasionally glance away from his work toward his subject. In those moments, I could have sworn he looked directly at me, but he could not see me. He only saw Ann and, I supposed, some great vision beyond even her. His gaze held no desire, no affection, only careful, rigorous study of his subject’s every color, line, texture, and form. The precise movements of his brush against the canvas were comparable to that of a surgeon, one who held his patient’s very life in each subtle movement of his hands. 

After closing the door, I felt as though I had trespassed upon holy ground. My heart had apparently stopped as I was held transfixed by the spectacle, and its sudden return to a normal pace caused a rush of anxiety to flow through my veins. _Maybe this was a bad idea._ I looked down the hall toward the hallway containing the pool room and considered going to bed. _No, I’ve come this far._  

I walked down the hall into the pool room, and much to my surprise, the room was empty. At that moment, it suddenly occurred to me that I was walking alone—in the middle of the night, in a dark room, on a ship whose inhabitants were expected to kill one another, separated by soundproof rooms from anyone upstairs—and I began to further reconsider my decisions. Wondering what had happened to my friends, I opened my e-Handbook and checked the map again. To my relief, Ann and Yusuke were still in the Ultimate Artist's lab, and the other students were still in the dormitory. 

Surprisingly, however, according to the map, both Lucille and Shiro were in the girls’ locker room. _Can Shiro get into the girls’ room? Wait. What if he didn’t go in there? What if Lucille…_ I dispelled the thoughts from my mind instantly. _No, Lucille would never kill anyone._  

Hoping to defy my increasingly paranoid concerns, I crept toward the girls’ room. The light on the door’s adjacent scanner was red, indicating it was locked, but the door had been left slightly ajar. _Do these doors not have alarms like the dorms?_ My heart raced, and I swallowed a lump that had suddenly appeared in my throat. _If I were in a horror movie, the audience would be screaming at me to turn around right now._ Just as I considered turning away, I heard Lucille murmur something in a muffled voice. _She wouldn’t be whispering something to a corpse, would she?_

Against my better judgment, I slowly placed a hand on the doorknob, and I creaked the door slightly more ajar, just enough that I could peer into the room through a single eye. Inside, to my horror, I saw Shiro lying naked on his back over one of the benches. Straddling his waist was Lucille, whose skirt had been pulled up from her waist to her midsection. Her shirt and bra had been discarded to a pile of clothes that included Shiro’s, and she undulated her hips over those of her apparent lover.

Shiro gripped his partner's waist in one hand and was muffling her moans of pleasure with the other. He was looking upward at an angle toward Lucille, who luckily was in the opposite direction of the door. “Quiet, Lucy,” he panted. 

“It’s alright,” Lucille breathed as she removed his hand from her mouth. “Their rooms are soundproof.” The Ultimate Prosecutor held Shiro’s hand and slowly traced her tongue between his middle and index fingers. Shiro’s body tensed up under the sensation, and Lucille trailed her fingers over his chest for good measure. 

In the next moment, Lucille noticed me. Her observant eye caught my own peeping through the cracked door. _Oh God... They’re going to call me a pervert…_ Lucille’s reaction, however, caught me completely off guard. She said nothing. She only smiled at me and leaned forward on top of Shiro’s body. She held his platinum-haired head within her arms and buried his face in her bare chest. In response, Shiro grabbed her hips, and he began to thrust upward into her. Lucille, meanwhile, maintained eye contact, and she extended a hand toward me. With a seductive grin, she curled her index finger twice in her direction, beckoning me to enter. Then, her lips mouthed two simple words:

_“Join us.”_

I ran.

I don’t know what I should have done, but I ran. It was a dream. It must have been a dream. Soon after, I awoke in my room in a cold sweat. Everything was exactly as I had left it the night before. Monokuma’s morning announcement played, and I stood up to get ready for breakfast. Then, I noticed I was still wearing my day clothes. _Didn’t I go to sleep in my pajamas?_

After taking a shower and getting ready, I went to the restaurant for breakfast. Ren had made coffee again, and as he passed steaming mugs to each of the students, I noticed that one mug remained leftover. “Did Mr. Goody 2s where s=1 shoe decide not to show up?” Noise remarked. 

“That’s not like him to be late,” Charlotte squeaked. 

“Goodness, me! I hope he hasn’t been _murdered_!” Haruki exclaimed. 

“That’s enough of that,” Kari scolded the Ultimate Class Clown as she popped the top of his head with a clipboard. Haruki turned silent, but his wide grin remained as he massaged his skull. 

“Maybe someone should check on him, just to be safe,” Reiko suggested. 

“Anyone got a trumpet? I’ll go play ‘Reveille’ outside his door,” Takamaru offered. 

“The rooms are soundproof, dumbass,” Emiko sighed. 

“You can still hear if someone rings your doorbell though!” Usami asserted from Miaya’s e-Handbook. “Let’s go try ringing it!” 

“Let him rest,” Lucille spoke up. “He’s been pushing himself too hard lately.” 

“Actually, Lucille,” Kari interjected, “that reminds me. I don’t appreciate that the two of you already broke our rule.” 

“Aye, what the fuck gives?” Noise shouted. “You two stood up there all condescending like regular teacher’s pets, and now you’re fuckin’ around like those rules don’t apply to you?”

 “We didn’t break any rules,” Lucille asserted as she calmly sipped her coffee. I found myself unable to maintain eye contact as I simply stared into my own drink. 

“Is that so? I wouldn’t think you the type to lie, but perhaps I’m mistaken,” Kari accused. “According to the map on the e-Handbook, the two of you were in the girls’ locker room in the middle of the night.” 

“Oh-ho-ho!” Haruki leaned suggestively over the table and into Lucille’s personal space. “What were the Ultimate Moral Compass and the no-nonsense lawyer-in-training getting up to alone in the middle of the night in a locker room?” 

“Wait. Does that mean you’ve been using the handbook’s map to spy on us?” Takamaru asked the assertive president. 

“Charlotte, would you kindly?” Lucille asked. Charlotte nodded and grabbed Haruki by the scruff of his shirt before depositing the curious clown in a seat on the other side of the table. Lucille took another sip from her coffee before responding, “Shiro wanted to investigate the inside of the girls’ locker room. Since his handbook won’t let him past the scanner, he asked if I could let him in. I stayed with him to make sure he wasn’t up to anything suspicious.” 

“That isn’t an excuse!” Kari declared as she slammed her hand onto the table. “You two are model students! How are we supposed to expect anyone to follow the rules if not even you take them seriously?” 

“I take the rules _very_ seriously,” Lucille retorted as she glared at the president from behind her coffee. “The rules prohibit us from leaving the dormitory at nighttime. Neither of us left the dormitory. We simply never returned there. We didn’t fail to follow the rules. You failed to produce rules that adequately encompassed your expectations for us.” 

“Alright, bitch!” Kari shouted in an uncharacteristically agitated tone. I looked up from my coffee to see that she had moved forward to slap Lucille, but Miaya had stepped protectively between the two of them. A red mark on Miaya’s face illustrated where the president’s strike had missed its mark. The room fell silent. Even Haruki wasn’t smiling. 

Miaya typed something into her e-Handbook, and then she leaned forward and turned the handbook around for all eyes to see. Usami smiled atop a field of sunflowers with a clear, blue sky in the background. “Kari! Let’s shift around our therapy sessions! Why don’t we start with you today?” Beside her red cheek, I could see Miaya smiling comfortingly at Kari from underneath her scarf. 

All eyes were on the president. Her hand was shaking. She seemed shocked at her own actions. “Yeah,” she murmured, “that’s a good idea, Miaya.” 

“Gale, can we push your appointment back to 10:00 a.m.?” Usami asked on Miaya’s behalf. 

“Yeah, that’s fine with me. I didn’t even know I was supposed to be first today,” I admitted. 

“Oh yeah, Shiro was supposed to hand out today’s slips,” Charlotte thought aloud. 

“I remember the appointment times,” Reiko shared. “I’ll just write new slips down and pass them around. Of course, I’ll shift everyone one appointment forward to account for Kari’s rescheduling.” 

“Thanks, Reiko!” Usami cheered from Miaya’s handbook. “You’re so reliable!” 

Reiko quickly jotted down a few times on some napkins, and she passed them out to Haruki, Takamaru, Lucille, Kari, and me. My own napkin read “10:00 a.m.” and featured a cute drawing of Usami. She kept a sixth napkin for herself. 

“I’ll slip Shiro’s under his door,” Reiko offered as she tucked her final napkin into her chest. 

“Miaya, would you mind if we started a little early?” Kari asked. 

“No problem!” Usami cheered. Then, Miaya and Kari left the restaurant. 

“What was that about?” Ann asked. 

“Kari has seen me as a rival for a while now,” Lucille sighed. “I thought we had moved past that, but apparently all of this stress is resurfacing old wounds.” 

“Still,” Reiko added as she towered over Lucille’s chair, “if you had noticed that loophole in the rules, you should’ve said something when we were writing them. It was selfish of you to withhold that loophole just so you could exploit it later.” 

“I simply misunderstood the intention of Kari’s rules,” Lucille defended. “I didn’t realize the intent behind it was to enforce a curfew.” 

“Fuck, when you put it like that, I want to listen to her even less,” Noise groaned. 

“What about you two?” Lucille questioned as she turned to Ann and Yusuke. “You’ve been unusually quiet all morning, and the two of you were alone in the Ultimate Artist's lab in the middle of the night.” 

“I apologize,” Yusuke replied. “Ann had offered to model for a new painting, and I merely lost track of time.” 

_Did he seriously lose track of time until after 3:00 in the morning?_

“Ooh, what kind of piece is it?” Haruki asked as he rocked back and forth in his chair. 

“I-I just wanted to give him a nudge since he wasn’t inspired is all,” Ann stuttered. 

“I would prefer not to show all of you until it has been completed,” Yusuke answered. 

“Regardless,” Charlotte spoke up, “let’s all agree to keep to the dormitory at nighttime from now on. I don’t want us to fight like this again…” 

“Very well,” Lucille agreed, “if the rule has been changed, I will adhere to the new rule.” 

Then, Shiro entered the restaurant. He wore a warm smile, and the signs of fatigue under his eyes had virtually vanished overnight. “Hello, everyone!” he greeted. “I apologize for my tardiness. It’s rare that I oversleep.” After glancing around the room, he asked, “Have Miaya and Kari already left?” 

“You just missed ‘em,” Emiko replied as she wiped black and red lipstick off her coffee mug. 

“Here, your coffee’s getting cold,” Lucille noted as she took the mug that had been intended for him from the center of the table and moved it to the seat next to her. 

“Ah, thank you, Lucy,” Shiro replied with a smile as he sat between Lucille and me. I must have reflexively averted my eyes because his attention turned toward me. “Is something wrong?” he asked.

“N-No, it’s nothing,” I stuttered in reply. 

“Well, I won’t pry, but remember you can talk to me if something’s troubling you,” Shiro assured me. “We’re friends, after all.” 

I spent the rest of the morning in awkward silence as the others chatted amongst themselves over the tables. I found myself surprised to be looking forward to my therapy session with Miaya. Before, I had been nervous and uncertain of what to expect, but now I welcomed the change of scenery. 

Before 10:00 a.m., I returned to my room briefly to retrieve the Usami plush I had won from the MonoMono Machine, and then I made my way to the Ultimate Therapist's lab. I waited outside the door until exactly 10:00, when Kari exited the lab. She nodded politely as she passed, and then she continued down the hall. I entered after her, and I closed the door behind me before sitting on the reclining sofa across from Miaya’s desk. 

The turquoise-eyed therapist tapped on her e-Handbook. “Thank you so much for coming!” Usami said. “Charlotte and I checked the other day, and we found that this room is completely soundproof, just like the dorm rooms, so you can share as much or as little as you like without having to worry about breaches in confidentiality!”

“Wait I can share as little as I like?” I wondered. 

“Yup!” Miaya affirmed vicariously through her avatar. “This is a therapy session, not an interrogation, so you’re not required to tell me anything. Of course, the more I know, the more I can help, but the goal is ultimately to make you comfortable and make everyone feel safe.” 

“Well, there is something that’s been kind of bothering me…” My mind flashed back to the previous night. _No, Miaya’s still a student. There’s no telling how she’d react._

Miaya seemed to notice my hesitation. “It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it yet,” Usami assured me. “This is just an introductory session, so why don’t you start by telling me about yourself? I don’t really know much about you since you’re a new student, but I’d love to get to know you better!” 

I spent the remainder of the morning talking to Miaya about myself. We discussed my past, family, hobbies, interests, and so on… She took careful notes on a notepad nearby and asked questions attentively, but she always knew when to change the subject when I grew uncomfortable. We took several short breaks to play card games, and she seemed overjoyed when I gave her the Usami plush. She even dropped her e-Handbook to grab my hands and shake them excitedly as a sign of appreciation. Her eyes beamed up at me, and I couldn’t help but blush until she pulled away. 

As our session came to a close, Miaya told me I could leave early if I liked, but instead, I took the opportunity to ask her something I had been curious about. “So, Miaya, you don’t really talk. I get that, but from the sound of it, you’ve been using Usami to communicate for a while.” 

“Yep!” Usami affirmed, “I helped design this avatar in a computer program! I’m still not used to using it on an e-Handbook though. It was much easier to type on my laptop.” 

“You helped design it?” I asked. “Who else worked on it?” 

“Well,” Usami explained after Miaya typed some instructions, “I had help from Yasuke Matsuda and Chihiro Fujisaki, who I’ve heard rumors are being scouted as the Ultimate Neurologist and Ultimate Programmer.” 

“That’s quite the dream team,” I admired. 

“Oh, this is nothing compared to what those two are capable of!” Usami blushed. “They’re so talented!” 

“Well, don’t sell yourself short,” I added. “You must be every bit as talented if you were scouted for Hope’s Peak.” 

Miaya blushed and hesitated a moment before typing something into her e-Handbook. “Thank you, I just hope my talents can be useful. With everyone’s help, I want to do my part to prevent any more murders from happening.” 

“You know, Lucille was right. You really are a lot more gung-ho than you let on,” I complimented. 

“Not really,” Usami explained, “I’m only like this because I’m scared of losing anyone else. Kagami was my dear friend, and I’m terrified that what happened to zir might happen again. I’m just a big coward.” 

“I don’t think that’s true at all,” I offered. “What you did today when you stepped between Kari and Lucille, that was really brave.” 

“Do you really think so?” Usami asked after Miaya typed excitedly into her handbook. “Did I look cool? I put on a tough face and everything!” 

“Yes,” I chuckled, “you were the coolest.” 

Miaya typed something into her handbook, and Usami suddenly acquired a pair of sunglasses. “Yes! We can do this! If I can step up, then I’m sure everyone can work together!” 

I checked the time on my own e-Handbook, and I noticed it was almost noon, about time for the next appointment. I said goodbye to Miaya, who silently waved back as she drew on her notebook. As I opened the door, I saw Takamaru waiting outside for his appointment. Before closing the door, I briefly turned around to glance back at Miaya. She was grinning excitedly at me from under her scarf, and she held up her notepad, which featured a drawing of Usami dressed as a machinegun-toting cyborg. Above the hastily-drawn sketch was a label reading, “Im the kewlest! B) !!”

Takamaru stepped into the Ultimate Therapist's lab after me, and I took a quick break for lunch. As I finished my meal, I took the last of my gifts, the glasses cleaner, from my pocket. Lucille had said that Kari would probably like it. I replayed the events of this morning in my head. _Maybe she needs to unwind a little._ Checking the map on my e-Handbook, I found that Kari was alone in her room. _Well, it wouldn’t hurt to check on her._  

I left the restaurant and made my way to the dormitory. On the way, I passed Shiro and Lucille, who were walking side-by-side and discussing the changes to our rules. Shiro smiled and greeted me as I passed. Lucille grinned and nodded politely. I found myself unable to muster much aside from an awkward chuckle and a wave. Shortly after, I came to Kari’s door, and I rang its doorbell. After a moment, Kari opened the door. “May I help you?” 

“Um,” I started, “do you wanna, like, hang out?” 

Kari looked around a bit, apparently skeptical. “Come in,” she demanded as she grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me into her room. 

“Uh, is this alright?” I asked. “I mean, if people see us here together on your map…” 

“Let them think what they want,” Kari deadpanned as she sat on the floor in front of her coffee table. On the table, there was a slew of pencils, pens, papers, notepads, binders, and sketches. “While you’re here, you should help me.” 

I sat down on the opposite end of the table and started examining the papers. They featured times, locations, and names listed in rows. Some papers even had pie charts, line graphs, and bar graphs that seemed to illustrate patterns in the amount of time people spent at certain places. “Uh, Pres,” I started, “this is… creepy.” 

“You’re the one who wanted to hang out,” she retorted. “If you’re not going to help, leave.” 

“Alright, sure, I’ll help,” I reluctantly agreed. Kari placed her e-Handbook on the table and started updating various notes and graphs based on the placement of students on the map. 

“You keep an eye on the lowest floor,” Kari ordered. “I’ll watch the first floor and the deck. Just list times, locations, and names, and circle anything that seems unusual. I’ll update the charts and everything else accordingly later.” 

At Kari’s behest, I spent the remainder of the afternoon helping her spy on our classmates using the e-Handbook’s map. After a while, my hand started to hurt, so I took a break and tried to make conversation. “You know, it’s funny how our handbooks never run out of battery.” 

“My working theory is that they use alternating current to wirelessly charge themselves as long as they’re on the ship,” Kari explained. 

“That’s awfully scientific of you,” I noted. “Come to think of it. You’re the Ultimate Student Council President, but were you always? I mean, you weren’t the Student Council President when you started at Hope’s Peak, were you?” 

“No,” she explained, “I was originally the Ultimate Forensic Criminalist. I planned to join law enforcement shortly after graduating. I was only Student Council President last semester. Before me, it was Kyosuke Munakata. He left rather impressive shoes to fill.” 

“Is that why you take this so…” I struggled for a moment to find the word as I stared around at the piles of notes and graphs, “seriously?” 

“I take this seriously because I’ve already lost Kudo-sensei and four of my classmates,” Kari retorted, “and I refuse to lose any more while they are under my watch. If I had been watching more closely, I could have stopped Kagami from setting up that murderous gadget. I could have prevented zir and Hifumi’s deaths.” 

“I don’t think what happened was anyone’s fault except Kagami’s and Monokuma’s,” I proposed. When she didn’t answer, I backtracked a bit before continuing, “Wait. You said you lost four classmates?” 

“You didn’t know them, but two of our classmates died before you and the others transferred in," Kari sighed. 

“Oh, right,” I recalled, “I remember reading about that online now that I think of it, but I don’t actually know what happened to them.” 

“One of them was Umeko Nakagawa, the Ultimate Accountant,” Kari explained. “She was a victim of the psychotic breakdown incidents that were rampant through most of last year. Her dad had a psychotic breakdown while driving a car. She and her whole family were in the vehicle at the time. None of them survived.” 

“That’s horrible.” 

“The other was Daisuke Akimoto, the Ultimate Model,” Kari continued. “I suppose you could think of him as Ann’s predecessor. In fact, I have a theory that she was scouted to attend Hope’s Peak because she has the same talent. Anyway, he was murdered sometime late last year. By the look of the case, it was the work of the infamous serial killer, Genocide Jack.” 

“Holy shit, you mean _the_ Genocide Jack?” I wondered. 

“Yeah,” Kari confirmed, “the cops still haven’t been able to hunt him down. Lucille and I actually put aside our differences to start working on the case ourselves, but then all of this happened.” 

“So…” I tried to change the subject. “What exactly is the deal between you and Lucy?”

Kari’s eyes widened, and her pencil broke against the paper on which she’d been writing. She looked up from her e-Handbook and glared at me from behind her glasses. “What did you call her?” 

“Oh, sorry,” I apologized, “it must have slipped. It’s just… I heard Shiro call her that this morning, and I just thought, you know, ‘Lucille’ sounds so formal and everything…” 

“Shiro called her that?” Kari wondered. 

“Should he not?” I asked. 

“The last person to call her that was Daisuke, and he…” Kari trailed off. 

“Yeah?” I beckoned the president to finish her sentence. 

“He was her boyfriend,” Kari finished. “She told me the only other people who called her that were her fathers and, well, me…” 

“I’ve never heard you call her that,” I noticed. 

“It’s complicated,” Kari sighed as she retrieved a fresh pencil and began to sharpen it with a handheld pencil sharpener. 

Deciding not to press the subject further, I checked the time on my e-Handbook, and I found it was already well past dinner. “We should get something to eat,” I suggested. 

“Go on ahead,” Kari insisted. “I’m not hungry.” She removed her glasses and wiped them clean on the collar of her shirt. 

“Here,” I offered as I took the glasses cleaner from my pocket, “use this.” 

“Thanks,” she smiled as she took the bottle from me and started to rub down her glasses with the included cloth. I stood up and started to leave, but she said something to stop me on my way out. “Gale,” she called, “one day, sooner rather than later, I’m going to get you and everyone else out of this prison. Mark my words.” 

I gave her a thumbs-up and said farewell before continuing to the restaurant. Over dinner, I sat quietly as Shiro and Noise argued about the importance of professional dress in the workplace. Nearby, Reiko scolded Charlotte and Haruki for practicing backflips below deck and shooed them from the room. Ren was reading a book quietly with his feet propped up on one of the tables while Emiko tried to tune out Takamaru, who had been attempting to explain to her in painful detail the aerodynamics of the German Focke-Wulf Fw 56 _Stösser_ using only a pair of salad forks and a Stromboli. Lucille was apparently in therapy with Miaya, and Yusuke and Ann were nowhere to be seen. _Should I tell them that Pres has been spying on them? No, most of them probably already know, and she is just trying to help. I can’t imagine Noise or Takamaru would take it well._  

Ultimately, I finished my dinner and left the restaurant without saying a word. I decided to go to my room and think the matter over in peace. Sitting on the edge of my bed, I opened my e-Handbook and checked the map. Unsurprisingly, Kari was still in her room. I sighed and closed the map, and it was then that I noticed a new app had appeared on the handbook. 

The icon for this peculiar piece of software was a red logo featuring a creepy eye, whose pupil was a black, five-pointed star. I opened the app to investigate, but all it did was fill my screen with a red-and-black wallpaper featuring the same logo. I tossed my handbook to the side of the bed and stood up to pace while thinking things through. “The others would flip if they found out Kari was micromanaging their daily routines,” I thought aloud. "Hikari Yamamoto, she's the Ultimate Student Council President, but she's acting more like the Ultimate Warden."

“Candidate found,” a feminine, synthetic voice called from my handbook. 

I eyed the device curiously for a moment before deciding to ignore it and return to my thoughts. “Is it just the dormitory, or does she think of the whole ship as a prison?” 

“Candidate found,” my handbook repeated. “Beginning navigation.” 

“Alright, Monokuma, what the hell are you up to this time?” I asked my room’s security camera as I picked up my e-Handbook from off the bed. I received no answer, however, and instead, my reality began to dissolve. Black and red lines burned holes through the world around me. I looked in every direction, but no matter my perspective, the world suddenly appeared a flat screen—like a projection whose film was being burned while the movie was still playing. 

Behind the burned veil, I found myself in stone prison cell whose only furnishings were a commode and a cot. There was also a monitor and a security camera identical to those featured throughout the ship. Iron bars separated the cell from the prison’s hall, which was lined with numerous other cells like my own. _What the hell was in that food?_ I placed my hands on the bars and tried to get a better look around my prison block. I could see Shiro sitting quietly in the cell across from me. “Hey,” I called out. “Shiro, what the hell’s going on? Did you get drugged too, or am I just tripping _really_ badly?” 

“Trip?” Shiro wondered in an emotionless tone. “No one takes trips. We are confined to this prison until we have completed our sentence. Whether we will be free to go or are sentenced to death, only the Executioner knows.” 

“Holy fuck, I’m apparently high as tits right now.”

“Don’t worry,” a monotone voice called from the cell to my left. Within, I could see Reiko, who also seemed to be patiently waiting within her prison. “The warden will watch over us and ensure that we receive justice. We must simply wait obediently within our cells until the warden liberates us.” 

“Warden? You mean Monokuma? He’s not letting us go! We have to break out on our own!” I yelled back at her. 

“Don’t be so loud,” another voice requested from the cell to my right. Charlotte sat in that cell. Her expression was as gloomy and detached as the others. “You’ll disturb the other inmates.” 

“Hey! What’s going on?” a strange voice called from down the hall. The source of the voice was a man with a shadowy figure. He was dressed like a prison guard, but he was hunched over, and he seemed to stalk forward as he approached. A mask covered his dark features so that he barely looked human at all. The guard stopped in front of my cell. “Well, what have we got here? You’re out of special confinement, eh?” 

“What the hell’s ‘special confinement’?” I asked. 

“Don’t play dumb with me!” the guard snapped. “Do I have to come in there and teach you some manners?” 

“Oh, by all means! Come get some!” I taunted. 

“Why you!” the guard shouted, but as he reached for the door to the cell, a strange creature jumped on the back of his head. The beast was small, a little less than half my height, and seemed to be something like an anthropomorphic cat. Its ovular head and cartoonish, blue eyes were disproportionately large compared to the rest of its body—comparable to a chibi character in an anime. It wore a black mask with eyeholes tied around its head and a matching black belt, which featured two gold buttons in the front and a small, black satchel on either side. 

The creature yowled angrily as it tore the mask off the prison guard and backflipped to a distance. The guard, to my surprise, exploded into a trio of identical, mechanical angels. The angels wore purple bodysuits with white stripes, and silver, geometric wings extended from each of their shoulder blades. Their shins and forearms were protected by gold, cylindrical armor while their heads were covered by matching gold helms resembling motorcycle helmets, the fronts of which sported three-pointed stars. 

Startled by the guard’s jarring transformation, I fell backward on my rear and stared in awe as an equally-strange creature materialized behind the cartoonish feline. This one was a humanoid in a blue bodysuit that was laced on either side from its ankles to its armpits. The bodysuit had a zipper on its chest, which was left open to expose a dark void beneath, and a hood that rested over its head. The lower half of its face was covered by a black bandana while small, red wings extended upward from the top half of its face like eyes. Its feet, shoulders, and forearms were covered by gold armor, and its glimmering shoes were further accented by massive wings that extended from its ankles. These wings stretched the length of the creature’s whole body and were lined with rows of cyan, white, blue, and gray feathers. In its right hand, the monster carried a gold staff that looked to be made of two intertwining spirals that connected to a point at the staff’s bottom end. 

“Come forth, my other self!” the catlike beast shouted as the winged monster materialized behind its small body. “Show your might, Mercurius!” it called as it pointed forward with its right forepaw. The beast’s “other self” flapped its pedal wings and summoned a gale-force gust of wind that surrounded the three mechanical angels in a trio of cyclones. The miniature cyclones cut into the three angels, who were knocked down by the vicious attack. “Time for some bloodshed!” the catlike beast shouted as it drew a piratelike scimitar from seemingly nowhere and vanished into flurry of slashes and strikes that tore through the angels from every angle. 

 A swivel chair fell from the sky, and the catlike creature suddenly landed in its seat. The creature turned around in the chair, now crossing its legs and holding a cigar, and it snickered up at me before declaring, “The. End.” Suddenly, blood burst forth from the angels in every direction, and the trio of mechanical archons dissolved into the air. 

“What the hell did I just watch?” I asked no one. 

“What are you doing here?” the catlike creature asked as it approached my cell. “You need to go back.” 

“If by ‘go back,’ you mean wake up, I’ve been trying for a while now,” I replied. 

“This isn’t a dream,” the feline bandit retorted. “This is a world created from distortions in human cognition.” 

“Isn’t that what a dream is?” I replied. 

“No, well… Yes, but this is different because you’re actually, physically here, and you’re in very real danger!” the creature warned. 

“Guards!” Shiro cried from within his cell. “Guards! There’s an intruder!” 

“Damn!” the creature cursed. “We have to hurry and get you out of there.” The feline bandit took a lockpick from one of the pouches on its belt and began to unlock the door to my cell. 

“What about the others?” I asked. 

“They aren’t real,” the creature explained. “Those are just the Palace ruler’s cognitions of the people aboard the ship.” 

The catlike monster finished unlocking my cell, and I opened the door to step into the hallway. “Why are they all behind bars?” I asked. 

“We’ve been sentenced to confinement under suspicions of attempted murder,” explained the cognitive Emiko from the cell next to Shiro’s. 

“Our wings have been clipped until we can be cleared of all charges and allowed to fly free,” a cognitive Takamaru continued from Reiko’s cell. 

“But none of you did anything!” I protested. 

“That doesn’t mean we won’t,” a cognitive Noise explained from the cell on the other side of Shiro’s. “This is for our own protection.” 

“Don’t waste your time!” the catlike beast urged. “They’re just cognitions. Their minds can’t be changed. What matters is that I find the Treasure so I can change the heart of this Palace’s ruler!” 

“Hey! Stop right there!” two more prison guards shouted as they rushed into the hall and charged us. 

“Crap!” the feline monster shouted, “This hall’s a dead end! No choice but to fight!” 

“Trespasser! You’ll be executed for your crimes!” the guards shouted as they melted into pools of black, bloodlike goo. From the puddles of viscous crimson rose two giant, armored warriors wielding gargantuan, metal hammers. The fighters stood at roughly twice my height and wore gold scale mail accompanied by tan leggings and sleeves, which formed to their muscular limbs underneath thick, white gloves and boots. Each warrior also wore a long, white cape that flowed down from the back of its golden, horned helmet. One of the warriors seemed to charge itself as an aura of power manifested around its body while the other swung its hammer to call down a bolt of lightning from above. 

The catlike bandit skillfully evaded the lightning before crying, “Persona!” and summoning the same mercurial shadow from earlier. “Take this!” the cat shouted as another gust of vicious wind surrounded the warriors and blew them backward. 

After a moment, however, these creatures regained their footing, and the one that had charged itself brought forth another bolt of lightning onto my newly-acquainted savior. Yowling in pain, the feline bandit was electrocuted where it stood as its “other self” faded out of view. Determined to maintain its onslaught, the same warrior called down another bolt of lightning that struck the catlike beast a second time. “I-I got shocked...! Can't... moooove!” the feline combatant groaned as static electricity circulated through its black and white fur. 

The second thundering warrior brought down its hammer and struck the cartoonish feline with a third bolt of lightning. This one surged through the feline trespasser just as viciously, and the monochromatic bandit seemed unable to pull itself to its feet. “Dammit... I don't have much health left...” The two warriors marched forward. One of them grabbed the cartoonish cat and held the small beast’s entire body in its armored hand. The other one rushed me. I turned around and tried to run, but it grabbed me by my leg after I had taken just one step, and I fell forward onto the stone floor. 

“Why bother fighting back?” the cognitive Shiro asked me from within his cell. “The warden will save all who are innocent. Those who perish are executed because they are guilty.” 

“I didn’t do anything!” I pleaded as the electric behemoth slammed my body into the stone wall. All the air abandoned my lungs, and I could have sworn I felt something snap inside me. 

“Trespassers will be executed,” the thundering warrior decreed.

 _Really? Is this the best you’ve got?_ The monstrous hulk pulled back its hammer and prepared to strike. _Are you just going to lay adrift at sea waiting to be rescued? Do you not have a home to which you wish to return?_ There’s no home left for me. Everything was taken. _Even if that home was stolen, you must muster your courage and return to steal it back for yourself. That is what the “other self” that sleeps within you desires._ That’s right. I’m not going to die here. _Then let us form a contract. Venture forth through Scylla and Charybdis both. I am thou, thou art I. Let not the goddess Calypso confine thee to a complacent damnation!_

“That’s right! I’m through sitting around waiting to be saved!” A gust of wind exploded from my body and pushed the colossal warrior off me. I landed on the ground and struggled to regain my footing, but a wave of unbearable pain brought me to the ground again. The goliath that had been holding the cat dropped its target and turned to my direction. “I get it now. That warden you were talking about isn’t Monokuma. It’s Kari, isn’t it? Well, she’s not going to save anyone by treating us like convicts!” 

In an attempt to quell the agony that seemed to overtake each and every one of my nerves, I gripped my face, but there I found some kind of cloth mask covering the upper half of my visage. Somehow, I sensed this object was the source of my agony, and I began clawing at my face to remove the root of my pain. _Call my name, and brave the storms this sea hath lain before thee!_

“This killing game is fucked up, and I’m going to fight to put an end to it! Isn’t that right, **Odysseus**?” Finally managing to grip my mask, I tore the cloth cover from my face, and most of my face’s skin peeled off alongside it. As I screamed in excruciating fury, a geyser of blue-and-white flames erupted from my body. The flames burned over my skin, and as they did, they replaced my clothes with a new outfit consisting of a brown vest, a mahogany undershirt, and black jeans covered in silver chains and studs. Burgundy boots with tall heels formed over my feet, and white, fingerless gloves appeared on my hands. Finally, an oversized, black-and-red bandana wrapped itself around my neck. 

As the blue flames roared from my body, they slowly materialized into an embodiment of my “other self” that floated behind me. The avatar was humanoid in form, and he wore a long, bronze duster that rippled behind his back. Underneath the coat, he wore a shimmering, silver cuirass that covered a skin-tight, ivory undershirt that extended down to cover his pelvis as well. His feet were covered by dark boots that extended past his knees, and his head sported an oversized, autumn-colored fedora featuring a black strap with a bronze buckle. 

Underneath his clothes, the being’s flesh appeared to be made of wood. A lightning-shaped scar cracked its way up the oaken flesh of the being’s right thigh. Meanwhile, an eerie, deceptive grin was carved into his face. In his hands, he carried a great, bronze rifle that was longer than his body. The butt of the rifle was shaped to resemble an equine head, and its scope was layered with a row of twelve ringed lenses. A jet-black blindfold covered the creature’s upper face, and green vegetation grew around his cracked smile like a mossy beard. 

Odysseus pointed his rifle forward, and his coat rippled outward behind him. At this point, I noticed that the tails of his coat were decorated with wavelike patterns similar in style to the paintings on Greek vases. The word “ΟΔΥΣΣΕΑΣ” was written vertically down the spine of his coat in gold letters. 

“Fall!” I shouted as my other self fired his gun at the thunderous warrior that had been assailing me. The hulking warrior dissolved under the force of the blow. Cocking his rifle and aiming yet again, the wooden gunman aimed for our second foe, and as that thundering colossus began to call down another bolt of lightning, Odysseus fired. The second hammer-wielder faded into black dust just as the first had. 

“Mercurius!” the cat cried as it called forth its other self. The winged avatar flapped its wings, and a wave of healing energy surrounded its user. The cartoonish cat stood on its feet and approached me. “I’ve never seen someone awaken to their Persona so fast.” 

“Is that what you call this?” I asked as I stared back at Odysseus. 

“Put simply, it’s a personification of your inner self, made manifest by this cognitive world,” the cat explained. “Still, you must be exhausted after using it for the first time.” 

“I could do this all day,” I smirked, but I soon ate my words. Odysseus faded out of view behind me, and I collapsed forward onto the ground. 

My feline acquaintance caught me and gently laid me on my back. “We need to get you out of here before more guards show up. How did you arrive in the first place?” 

“I don’t know,” I panted. “I was just thinking out loud, and then my e-Handbook said something about ‘beginning navigation.’ Next thing I knew, I was behind bars.” 

“Wait. Your e-Handbook sent you here?” the creature inquired disbelievingly. “Let me see.” Without my consent, the beast began to rifle through my pockets and produced my e-Handbook from therein. “You have the Meta-Nav! How did you get this?” 

“It just appeared there, like, a minute ago,” I complained. 

“Well, we can talk more about this in the real world,” my catlike acquaintance offered. “For now, I’m sending you back.” 

The creature pressed a button on my e-Handbook, and the same feminine, synthetic voice sounded, “Returning to real world. Thank you for your hard work.”

The next morning, I woke up on top of my sheets and still fully dressed from the day before. Exhausted, I changed my clothes and freshened up before stepping out to go to the restaurant. Outside, I saw an unexpected visitor waiting by my door. Ren’s pet cat, Morgana, sat patiently and stared upward at me. His tail flicked from side to side. “Ah, good, I was hoping you’d wake up early,” the cat said. I stood dumbfounded for a moment before it occurred to me that I must still be dreaming. Just as my door closed itself behind me, I turned around and scanned my e-Handbook to reenter. “Hey! Don’t ignore me!” the cat whined. 

Hesitantly, I turned around and looked down at the creature. Blue eyes, black and white fur—he had the same features as the feline beast who had appeared to help me in my dream. “Wait. Then you’re actually… That wasn’t a dream?” 

“I already told you,” Morgana sighed, “you weren’t dreaming. You entered a world created from a distortion in human cognition. It’s the same technique we Phantom Thieves used to change people’s hearts.” 

“Wait. ‘ _We’_ Phantom Thieves? You’re also a Phantom Thief?” I wondered. 

“Yup, Ren may have been the leader, but to be honest, they wouldn’t have gotten very far without me,” the cat bragged. 

“So… they sent you into that distortion world, and you altered people’s cognitions from within?” I asked. 

“First of all, it’s called the Metaverse, not the ‘distortion world,’ and second of all, they came along too,” he admitted. “They used an app like the one that appeared on your e-Handbook, but that app disappeared after we destroyed Mementos. They haven’t been able to enter the Metaverse since. Actually, I was certain that world had vanished, but for some reason, I could sense a distortion here, so I’ve been investigating.” 

“Hold on. How did you investigate if you guys don’t have the app anymore?” I inquired. “Also, how the hell do you talk?” 

“I’m special. I can travel to and from the Metaverse without an app,” Morgana boasted. “You can understand me because meeting me in the Metaverse has cleared your mind of the mistaken cognition that I couldn’t talk. Anyway, that’s enough questions. We need to tell the guys about this. If we use your Meta-Nav, the others can come with me into Kari’s Palace, and stealing her Treasure will be a cinch.” 

“Yeah, I need to tell everyone that Kari’s been spying on them,” I agreed. 

“No! Don’t!” Morgana warned. “If you do that now, it’ll put her on high alert! We need to secure a route to the Treasure first. Then we sound the alarm!”

“Okay, I know you said no more questions, but what the hell do you mean by ‘Treasure’?” I asked. 

“Ugh,” Morgana groaned, “I’ll explain later. For now, we need to go before someone else comes out of their room and sees me.” 

“Good morning, everyone!” Monokuma announced from a nearby monitor. “It is now 7 a.m., and nighttime is officially over. Time to rise and shine! Get ready to greet another beee-yutiful day!”

“That’s my cue!” Morgana exclaimed as he dashed out of the dormitory. 

A minute later, Haruki emerged from his room and yawned dramatically. “Oh, g’morning, Gale! It’s rare to see you out and about before the others,” he chuckled. “Not up to anything suspicious, are we?” 

“No, I just happened to wake up a little early is all,” I replied. 

“Don’t worry about it,” he grinned widely. “I don’t actually care. Let’s get ready to greet another beee-yutiful day!” 

I reluctantly followed the Ultimate Class Clown to the restaurant. Kari, Lucille, Shiro, and Charlotte were already there. Ren, Emiko, and Miaya joined us shortly after. Yusuke and Ann came next. Noise arrived by himself after them. Reiko and Takamaru were the last to arrive. With everyone accounted for, breakfast proceeded more-or-less as usual. 

I was too lost in my thoughts to participate much in the conversations around me, however. _Should I tell them about Kari’s spying? I thought I’d made up my mind not to sit back idly anymore, but Morgana warned me not to. Then again, why am I taking advice from a talking cat? Was that just a hallucination or something? Would being stranded in the middle of the ocean under the thumb of a psychotic teddy bear trying to force me to kill my classmates make me go crazy? Wow, actually, when I think of it like that, it kind of seems reasonable._

“You agree with me, don’t you, Gale?” Shiro’s question snapped me out of my daze. 

“Uh, sorry, I zoned out. What were we agreeing on?” I asked. 

“Shiro suggested we have a pool party!” Charlotte cheered. 

“I think it’s a wonderful idea,” Haruki agreed. “All of you have been too down in the dumps lately!” 

“You just want to see all the girls in swimsuits,” Emiko muttered. 

“Some downtime could help raise morale after everything that’s happened,” Lucille affirmed. 

“You just want to see all the _boys_ in swimsuits,” Noise scoffed. Lucille passed him a glare, and he pretended not to have said anything. 

“Admiration for the opposite gender aside,” Yusuke interjected, “where would we even obtain said swimsuits? Our wardrobes contain only daywear and sleepwear.” 

“There are plenty of swimsuits in my lab!” Reiko shared. “They come in all sizes too!” 

“W-Would they even have some that fit me?” Charlotte stuttered as she fidgeted with her index fingers. 

“Well, Gale? What do you say?” Shiro repeated his question. 

“Sure, that sounds fun,” I agreed. 

“I’ll go along with it,” Takamaru agreed as well, “but you’d better not be ogling Reiko while we’re in there!” he threatened as he pointed toward Haruki, who simply chuckled defensively in response. 

“What about you, Miaya?” Ann asked. 

The Ultimate Therapist took a moment to type something into her e-Handbook. When she showed us the screen, Usami was lounging under a beach umbrella in a seashell bikini and sipping a tropical beverage. Miaya gave us a peace sign with her other hand and nodded silently in assent. 

“That settles it, then!” Ann declared. “Let’s all get together this afternoon at the pool!”

“How does two o’clock sound?” Shiro asked the crowd. “We should give everyone plenty of time to digest their lunches.” 

“Alright! Girls, let’s all go pick out swimsuits at my lab after breakfast!” Reiko asserted. 

“Um, Reiko,” Charlotte murmured, “could it be that it’s _you_ who wants to see all the girls in—” Reiko covered Charlotte’s mouth and began awkwardly laughing to drown out the effeminate goliath’s muffled protests. 

“No way!” Noise objected, “You girls are so zetta slow. You’ll take an order of magnitude longer than the guys and leave us with 0 time before the party to pick our own out.” 

“Now, Noise, I think letting the girls go first would be behavior more befitting of a proper gentleman,” Shiro argued. 

“Screw your propriety!” Noise objected as he threw a fork at Shiro, who simply caught the utensil in midair without dropping his polite smile. 

“I’ll be sure they don’t take longer than a couple hours,” Lucille assured us. “How does that sound?” 

“That seems more than reasonable,” Yusuke agreed. 

“I call dibs on the cutest one!” Ann cried. 

“What qualifies as ‘cutest’?” Emiko asked no one in particular. 

“I won’t be joining you,” Kari declared as she sipped the last of her morning coffee. “I have to retake inventory this afternoon.” 

The room fell silent as all eyes turned toward the stalwart president. She glanced up at us from behind her glasses as Miaya was typing something into her handbook. Miaya turned her handbook around, and Usami, still clad in her seashell bikini, pointed forward toward Kari. “Get her!” the leporine avatar ordered, and the girls descended onto the president in swarm. 

“Hey, stop! Ow! Hold on! Don’t touch me there!” After a brief struggle, Kari had been hoisted over Charlotte’s shoulder. Lucille folded the president’s glasses and hung them on her shirt collar. Ann brushed her hands off while Reiko placed her hands on her hips and posed triumphantly. Emiko sighed and picked up Kari’s heels after they fell off while she was kicking futilely into the air. Miaya showed us a video of Usami dragging away a chibi version of Kari on her handbook’s screen as she followed the remaining girls out of the restaurant. 

“Scary…” Ren remarked as Emiko and Miaya closed the restaurant’s door behind them. 

I spent the rest of the morning hanging out with the other boys in the restaurant. I internally debated confronting Ren and Yusuke about the Metaverse, but having a subtle conversation with the others around would have been impossible. Besides, Ren’s shoulder bag and Morgana were nowhere to be seen. 

After a couple hours, we departed from the restaurant and headed downstairs toward the Ultimate Thespian's lab. After descending the stairs and turning down the hall, we passed the girls, who were on their way out of the lab and all wearing their swimsuits. Ann was wearing a tie-dye bikini with a tie-side bottom held in place by thin, red straps that left little to the imagination. Charlotte wore a flamingo-pink one-piece whose abdomen was dominated by a picture of a sunflower. Kari sported a navy-blue one-piece that looked identical to the sort you’d find in a Japanese school. Miaya wore a pastel-pink two-piece with a sport top. Reiko had a turquoise two-piece with a halter top and high-waisted bottoms. Lucille wore a purple one-piece with lavender accents. Emiko was wearing a two-piece with a dark gray bandeau top and a pitch-black, skirted bottom featuring small pockets in which she rested her hands. 

“Pick your jaws up off the floor,” Ann teased as they approached. 

“This idea sucked,” Kari muttered. 

“Doesn’t mine look so cute?” Charlotte giggled as she flexed to accentuate her perfectly-sculpted muscles. 

“You look absolutely adorable, _mon amour_ ,” Haruki assured her as he blew the feminine colossus a kiss. Charlotte let out an embarrassed squeak and blushed furiously in response. 

“My, could you have decided to emerge in your swimwear in an attempt to fluster us?” Shiro asked plainly with a friendly smile. 

“The fuck do they take us for?” Noise chided. “Everyone knows brains are the new tits.” 

“Miaya, the color of your swimsuit clashes with your hair,” Yusuke observed as he examined the crowd through a rectangular frame formed from his thumbs and forefingers. “Perhaps a cooler tone would be better suited to your aesthetic.” 

“Well, Takamaru, what do you think of _my_ swimsuit?” Reiko asked as she approached her boyfriend and twirled dramatically. 

“Huh? Oh yeah, you look great, honey!” Takamaru stammered after looking up from his e-Handbook. 

“We’re done here,” Lucille sighed as she led the girls past us. 

“U-Um, Gale,” Emiko stuttered as she passed me. 

“Y-Yeah?” I managed to reply as I made every attempt to maintain eye contact. 

“Never mind,” she murmured as she followed the girls to the stairs. 

“Here I thought they didn’t want us ogling them,” Haruki chuckled.

“Chicks are fuckin’ complex numbers,” Noise groaned. 

“None of you were eyeing up Reiko while I wasn’t looking, were you?” Takamaru inquired. 

“Their fashion sense could really use some work,” Yusuke added. 

“This was clearly a test of our resolve,” Shiro concluded. “They would have felt uncomfortable swimming with us if we had objectified them from the very start.” 

“You guys are idiots,” Ren sighed. 

In the Ultimate Thespian's lab, we each sorted through and tried on a number of swim trunks. Ren settled on a pair of royal blue trunks with a striped waistline. Yusuke went for a pair of grayer-blue trunks with white polka dots. Noise found a pair of neon green trunks with a yellow sine curve around one of the legs; seeing him shirtless for the first time, I noticed his mathematical tattoos extended beyond his arms and covered most of his torso as well. Takamaru picked out a pair with a floral, Hawaiian pattern. Haruki found a sky-blue pair with a cartoonish sun wearing sunglasses on the side. Shiro surprised us all with silver-gray swim briefs that exposed most of his legs. As for me, I went with a dark green pair that had vertical blue stripes down the sides. 

After picking out our swimwear, the seven of us left the lab. Most of us had changed back into our clothes, but Shiro continued to wear his revealing swim briefs, and he carried his clothing neatly folded in his arms. 

“For fuck’s sake, Shiro, put your goddamn pants back on,” Noise complained. 

“Oh? I find walking through the hallway in this to be quite empowering, however,” Shiro observed with a charming smile. “Perhaps the girls were onto something.” 

“You do look rather stunning,” Yusuke complimented. “Perhaps you would be willing to be the subject of my next piece.” 

“It would be an honor,” Shiro chuckled back. 

“Hey, Yusuke, have you ever considered painting a plane?” Takamaru asked. 

“Hmm, no, I suppose I have not,” the Ultimate Artist answered. 

Takamaru put an arm around Yusuke’s shoulders and pulled the blue-haired artist down to eye level as we walked forward. “Son, let me tell you something. You’ll never capture true beauty in your work if you’ve never painted a good, old-fashioned airplane.” 

“Hahaha, that was a good one, Takamaru,” Haruki laughed.

“Oh? Yes, I see. That was a very funny joke,” Yusuke hesitantly agreed. 

Most of us headed to the restaurant for lunch, but Shiro parted with us once we reached the stairs to the first floor. “I’d like to investigate the pool and ensure that the water temperature and chlorine content are appropriate for prolonged exposure,” he explained. By lunch, the girls had all changed back into their daywear. Kari excused herself to eat most of her lunch in her room. I assumed she intended to use her time to keep tabs on us again. Reiko and Takamaru left early as well, but Shiro rejoined us shortly afterward, and we hung out until time for the pool party. 

When the time came, we returned to the lower floor and made our way to the pool. Reiko met us outside the pool room, but she was alone. “Takamaru has a headache,” she told us, “so he might end up sitting this out. He may still show up later, though.” 

“That’s too bad.” Shiro seemed a little upset, but soon his charming smile returned in full force. 

“Hehe, I guess this means we can ogle you now,” Haruki chuckled. 

“Lay off,” Reiko laughed back, clearly going along with the joke. 

“I verified that the floor is dry and that the water is the ideal temperature,” Shiro assured us. “We should be able to safely enjoy ourselves for quite some time, but be sure to shower before you enter the pool. We must be sure to keep the space hygienic.” 

“Sure, whatever,” Noise complied. 

The boys and girls separated into our respective locker rooms. Ensuring the door was closed behind us, I started changing into my swim trunks. “I think I shall take the first shower,” Yusuke declared once he had finished changing. 

“Me too,” said Ren, and the two of them each stepped into one of the shower stalls. 

Almost as soon as the water had started running, Haruki called to the rest of us from one of the lockers. “Hey, guys, check this out.” 

Noise, Shiro, and I stepped forward. “What is it?” Shiro asked. 

Haruki stepped to the side and grinned widely to reveal a hole in the back of the locker. “Guess where this leads.” 

“Don’t tell me it goes all the way to the girls’ room,” I sighed. 

“You’re a fuckin’ scumbag,” Noise reprimanded. 

“Well said,” Shiro approved. 

“Oh, come on! You can’t tell me you’re not even a _little_ intrigued,” Haruki teased. “Isn’t there at least one girl here you’d like to see naked?” 

“Well, maybe there was, but…” Noise trailed off and bit his lip. 

“Oops, I forgot. I didn’t mean to strike a nerve,” Haruki chuckled. 

“That aside, it’s not a matter of desire. It’s a matter of consent,” Shiro retorted. 

“Come now, Shiro. A prestigious young man like you must have his eye on _someone_ ,” Haruki insisted. “What about Lucille? You two have been spending quite a bit of time together recently.” 

I suddenly felt nauseous and had to sit on the bench. “Our relationship is strictly professional,” Shiro corrected. 

“You’re full of shit,” I muttered under my breath. 

“Beg your pardon?” Shiro inquired. 

“It’s nothing,” I sighed. “Hey, Haruki, let me take a look.” 

“As expected of the Ultimate Adventurer,” the Ultimate Class Clown snickered, “I knew you’d never turn down the opportunity to explore the peaks and valleys beyond the horizon.” 

“Fine, I’m in too,” Noise grunted. “I can’t keep dwelling on… my issues.” 

“Well, I, for one, want no part in this delinquency,” Shiro asserted. “Consider yourselves lucky I don’t report you to the president.” Shiro stood from his bench and moved toward the door. 

“Ain’t you the one who said we needed to shower?” Noise inquired. 

“I, of course, showered before coming here,” Shiro rebutted. “I hope you get all of this foolishness out of your system now and are able to act civilized in the pool.” 

Shiro left the locker room in a huff, and the three of us remaining looked around at each other. “Sheesh, he’s such a stick in the mud,” Haruki sighed. 

“Now I wanna do it just to piss him off,” Noise declared. 

Haruki peeked through the hole in the wall again and grinned widely before moving aside and allowing Noise access to the hole. “Go right ahead,” he offered. 

“If this is some prank, I’ll fuckin’ drown you,” Noise threatened before looking through the hole himself. 

“Well?” I asked after Noise stared for a moment. “Is he being for real?” 

“See for yourself, man,” Noise offered after stepping aside. 

I took my turn and stepped forward to look through the hole in the wall. Surprisingly, Haruki was true to his word. The hole offered a perfect view of the girls’ locker room next door. Reiko and Miaya were apparently in the showers, but the others were all seminude or changing in full view. Charlotte sat on a bench with her back facing the hole. Her dark, perfectly-sculpted muscles rippled throughout her back like a scenic mountain of faultless athleticism. Lucille stood topless in the center of the room after some mishap with the top half of her swimsuit. Her perfect posture and silver hair accentuated her perky chest. Ann was wearing her swimsuit, but she leaned forward into one of the lockers on the opposite wall to face a mirror. The pose picturesquely framed her posterior, as did the occasional shift in her footing as she battled against any imperfection that dared assault her flawless face. Emiko was tying up her hair, but the elastic on her hairband snapped, and the band fell to the ground. As she leaned down to retrieve it, her loosely-tied bandeau top exposed the entirety of her modest cleavage. 

I moved away from the hole in the wall. I felt somewhat ashamed, but my venture felt vindicated nonetheless. “Truly a sight for sore eyes, was it not?” Haruki pried as he leaned uncomfortably close to me. 

Before I could answer, Takamaru entered the room. “Hey, guys, sorry I’m late,” he apologized. “Whatcha up to?”

“Nothing at all!” Haruki asserted. I started to look at him quizzically, but he passed me a look that said, “ _Takamaru will kill you_ ,” and I remained silent. 

“Why are you all gathered around that locker?” asked the Ultimate Pilot. 

“We were arguing over which of us could use it for our clothes,” Haruki laughed.“I guess you win, eh, Gale?” I chuckled awkwardly along but seemed unsure of how to respond. 

Takamaru eyed us skeptically and pushed past us. He noticed the hole in the locker and peered through. “Wait! Takamaru! I can explain!” I shouted. 

Takamaru pulled away from the hole and smiled at us. “For a second, I thought you guys were spying on my girlfriend while she was changing, but there’s too much steam to see anything in there. It’s a good thing too, or I would’ve had to carpet-bomb your homes once we got out of here!” 

“Oh, yeah, Haruki was saying something about a peephole, but it was just a joke since you can’t actually see anything for all the steam,” I laughed in an awkward mixture of confusion and relief. 

Ren and Yusuke emerged from the showers, and Haruki quickly stepped forward to take his turn next. “I guess I’ll go too,” Takamaru yawned as he stepped into the adjacent shower.

“Oh, how pleasant, Takamaru joined us after all,” Yusuke noticed. Noise was clutching his heart in his chest and suddenly exhaled deeply as if he had been holding his breath for minutes. 

Curious to a fault, I peered through the hole in the wall again. By now, the girls’ locker room had completely filled with steam, just as Takamaru had said. I could vaguely make out Charlotte’s outline alongside a couple others, but the view was completely nondescript. “I wonder if our room is better ventilated,” I pondered as I noticed how the boys’ room was still quite clear. Ren gave me a curious expression, but I thought it best not to dig my hole any deeper. 

After a few minutes, Takamaru and Haruki emerged from the showers. To my amazement, Haruki’s face was still completely covered in white face-paint and brightly-colored makeup. His hair was wet, so there was no chance he had kept the water out of his face. “What’s up with your makeup?” I asked. 

“Impressive, right?” Haruki chuckled. “I found it in the Ultimate Thespian's lab. It’s completely waterproof.” 

“What about you, Noise?” Yusuke asked the Ultimate Mathematician. “Do you intend to swim with all of your piercings?” 

“These coordinates are all implant-grade titanium,” Noise explained as he gestured toward his eyebrow piercing. “I can wear ‘em ‘til I fuckin’ die.” 

“Let’s not wait that long to go swimming,” Haruki joked. “You and Gale can join us after you finish showering.” On that note, Haruki led Takamaru, Ren, and Yusuke out of the locker room. As they left, Noise and I stepped into our respective showers. However, just before I turned on the water, a familiar, high-pitched noise sounded throughout the room. 

*Ding dong, dong ding* 

“A body has been discovered!” I grabbed my throat to clutch a lump that suddenly formed there as my eyes burst open. “After a certain amount of time, which you may use however you like, the **class trial** will begin!” 

 _Who is it?_ Noise and I burst out of our showers and rushed into the pool room. There, we saw the source of the announcement. 

Shiro Hatori, the Ultimate Moral Compass, was lying half-naked, belly-up at the bottom of the pool. Several layers of gray duct tape had bound his legs together and sealed his arms to his torso, and an additional strap of tape covered his mouth. His long, platinum hair floated outward in all directions, and his dull, lifeless eyes seemed to scream in a horrified agony. 


	5. Chapter 2: O Captain! Monokaptain! - Deadly Life

Yusuke, Takamaru, Ren, Noise, Haruki, and I stood in awe of the graphic spectacle. Within moments, Lucille, Kari, Ann, Emiko, Charlotte, Reiko, and Miaya rushed out of their locker room as well. They stopped and gawked at the body in terror. I vaguely remember the sound of Charlotte sniffling. After a moment, Lucille collapsed to her knees. “Not again…” 

“That’s right!” Monokuma proclaimed as he fell from the ceiling and landed in front of us. "One of you has become the blackened and murdered Shiro Hatori, and this time, there weren’t any loopholes, so it definitely wasn’t me!” 

“But all of us were in the showers until two seconds ago!” Reiko protested. 

“Puhuhu! That makes this quite the mystery, doesn’t it?” Monokuma chuckled. “You’d better start investigating, or else all but one of you will be thoroughly _punished_!” 

“Will we be receiving an autopsy this time as well?” Kari asked. 

“Autopsy? Oh! You must mean the beloved Monokuma File! Thanks for reminding me!” Monokuma wagged his forepaw teasingly and then leapt back into the ceiling. My e-Handbook buzzed in my swim trunks’ pocket as he disappeared from sight, and I opened the device to read the file within: 

“The victim is Shiro Hatori.”

“The time of death was 2:13pm.” 

“The body was found bound by duct tape at the bottom of the pool.”

“The victim died from drowning.”

Reiko gasped, “Takamaru! Come on! We need to go check backstage!” Reiko grabbed her boyfriend by the wrist and led him out of the pool room. 

“Charlotte, do you think you could fish the body out of the pool?” Kari asked. “We can’t really investigate very well from here.” 

“Um, s-sorry,” Charlotte stuttered, “I’m getting dizzy just looking at it. I don’t think I could touch it…” 

“Would you mind going to the Ultimate Thespian's lab with Reiko then?” the president requested. “I want to make sure those two don’t try falsifying any evidence.”

“We’re less than a minute into the investigation, and you’re already on edge,” Haruki chuckled. 

“Ren, Yusuke, can you two help me with the body?” Kari asked. 

“I shall do my best,” Yusuke agreed. Ren nodded as well. 

“Everyone else, start searching around here for any leads,” Kari ordered. 

“Sure thing,” Noise affirmed. 

“I’ll check the girls’ locker room!” Usami offered on Miaya’s behalf. 

As the group split up to begin investigating, Lucille pulled herself to her feet. She took a moment to breathe deeply and brush off her knees before approaching me. “Gale,” she said, “in the last trial, you were able to uncover that Kagami was the killer when I was wrong, so…” She trailed off for a moment before continuing, “Will you help me solve this case?” 

“Yeah,” I agreed. _Shiro wasn’t perfect, but he didn’t deserve this._

“Let’s start with the series of events,” Lucille started. “You were one of the last people to see Shiro, correct?” she asked. “Can you tell me in detail what happened leading up to the announcement?” 

“Well,” I began, “Shiro went into the locker room with Ren, Yusuke, Noise, Haruki, and me. Ren and Yusuke jumped in the showers. Shiro was talking to Haruki, Noise, and me for a minute, but he left the locker room early. Takamaru showed up a little after that. Then, Ren and Yusuke got out of the showers, and Haruki and Takamaru went in the showers. Noise and I waited with Ren and Yusuke until Haruki and Takamaru came out. Then, Noise and I went into the showers while Ren, Yusuke, Haruki, and Takamaru left the locker room. Right after that, the body discovery announcement played.” 

“I see,” Lucille observed. “Do you know what time Shiro left the locker room or when Takamaru entered?” she asked. 

“I don’t,” I admitted. “I wasn’t looking at the time. They were maybe a few minutes apart though.” 

“We’ll have to ascertain whether Takamaru has an alibi then,” Lucille concluded. 

“What happened in the girls’ locker room?” I asked. 

“It was pretty similar,” Lucille explained. “Charlotte, Ann, Reiko, Miaya, Emiko, and I entered the locker room at the same time as the boys. Miaya and Reiko showered first while the rest of us were changing and such. Kari arrived shortly afterward, but I also don’t know what time she arrived, so I’m not sure whether it was before or after Shiro left the boys’ room. Miaya and Reiko were getting out of the shower at about the time the announcement played.” 

“I see,” I answered as I tried to absorb all of the information. 

“If you don’t mind,” Lucille continued, “I’d like to corroborate your story with the other boys, just as a precaution.”

“Yeah, no problem,” I agreed. Ren and Yusuke were busy helping Kari with the body, so I decided it best to ask Noise and Haruki, who had moved to investigating the boys’ room. Luckily, the door to the locker room had been left open, and since these doors didn’t close automatically like the dorms', we didn’t need to scan our handbooks to reenter. 

We entered the room to find the two boys searching around every nook and cranny for anything suspicious. “Why the fuck are we wasting time here?” Noise complained. “We were in here the whole time. We already know there’s 0 evidence here.” 

“Sometimes the best place to hide something is under your nose,” Haruki chuckled. “Besides, no one asked you to help me search.” 

“Yeah, but there’s no tellin’ what kinda shit you’d try to pull if I left you alone,” Noise retorted. 

“Hey, can you guys run through the series of events for Lucille real quick?” I asked. “She just wants to make sure I’m not making anything up.” 

“Yeah, no problem,” Noise offered. The Ultimate Mathematician’s recount of the events matched mine exactly, and Lucille nodded approvingly as our accounts proved to be consistent. 

“Well, Haruki, did he get anything wrong?” Lucille asked. 

“No, that about sums it up,” Haruki smiled. 

Satisfied with the answer, Lucille started looking around the room as well. “What’s this?” she asked as she stumbled upon the tiny hole in the wall inside one of the lockers. 

“Huh?” Haruki acted surprised as he examined the hole. “Oh man, I wish I had known about that sooner,” he giggled. 

“I’ll ask Reiko to seal it up later,” Lucille sighed. “These rooms aren’t safe if someone like you knows about this.” Noise and I decidedly remained silent. “Well, aside from this, there isn’t anything out of the ordinary in here,” Lucille concluded. “Let’s try checking the other room.” 

Lucille and I went into the girls’ locker room, whose door had also been left open. At first sight of the room, my mind flashed back to my brief encounter with Lucille and Shiro here the other night. I shook my head and put the thoughts out of my mind. There were more important matters at hand. 

As I entered the room, I noticed it felt considerably more humid than the area outside. Furthermore, true to my memory, the girls’ locker room was essentially a mirror image of the boys’. Lockers covered most of the walls on the left and right sides of the room while two shower stalls were positioned against the back wall. Miaya and Emiko were searching around for anything suspicious. “Look over here!” Usami called to us on Miaya’s behalf as we entered. 

Both Miaya and her avatar gestured toward a sizeable air vent near the floor in the back-right corner of the room between the lockers and one of the shower stalls. The vent, however, was missing its cover. “That’s strange,” Lucille noticed. “I could’ve sworn that vent was covered when we came in.” 

“Did the cover come off while we were changing?” Emiko asked. 

“If it did, then where did it go?” Lucille wondered. The four of us crowded around the open vent, and Lucille squatted down to inspect the area further. “Look at this,” she said as she picked up a small screw from off the ground. 

“That must’ve been used to attach the cover to the vent,” I concluded. 

“Then, did someone unscrew the cover while we were changing?” Usami pondered aloud. 

“We might not have noticed since it’s tucked away between the showers and the lockers,” Emiko observed. 

“There wasn’t anything like this in the boys’ room, right?” Lucille asked. 

“No,” I confirmed, “the boys’ room had air vents in the ceiling, and they weren’t nearly this big. Speaking of which…” I started as I crawled forward and looked inside the vent, “doesn’t this seem like a person could fit through here?” 

“Do you suppose it leads somewhere?” Lucille asked. 

“Let’s find out,” I declared as I crawled into the airduct and began my exploration. After several feet, I came to a sharp right turn, and when I took it, I could see light coming from an opening in the other side of the duct up ahead. As I continued onward, I could hear Lucille crawling in after me. 

Moments later, I emerged from the other end of the crawlway into a small, cubicle room with marble tiles covering most of its floor and walls. The room’s most notable feature was a circular hot tub embedded into the floor. The room’s metal door featured a small window that verified my suspicions. Lucille emerged from the airduct and stated the obvious, “This is the hot tub room.” 

There were some puddles of water in and around the tub in the middle of the floor, but for the most part, the hot tub was empty. “What’s this?” I asked as I approached a white towel that had been folded up in the corner. When I moved the towel aside, I uncovered two identical airduct covers, a roll of gray duct tape, and an electric screwdriver attached to a sizeable external battery accompanied by seven screws. “Well, this is suspicious as hell,” I observed. _This explains the missing covers, and this looks like the tape that was used to bind Shiro. Why did the killer even bother with the towel?_

“Let me see,” Lucille insisted as she knelt down to examine the evidence. She took the screwdriver in her hand, and she pressed a button on the side that caused its shank to spin silently. Pressing the button again stopped the device. After replacing the tool to preserve the scene, she picked up one of the metal covers and peered through it. “Don’t the bars on the cover look a little far apart to you?” she noticed. 

“Hey, check this out,” I called as I stepped down into the empty hot tub. Inside the tub, there was a touchscreen thermostat that could be used to regulate the water temperature of the tub. The interface also included a menu with settings for the jets, bubbles, and various scents as well as an option to drain or refill the tub. 

“This might explain the wet floor,” Lucille agreed. “Come on. I want to see if Kari learned anything from the body.” 

The two of us left the hot tub room and stepped out into the pool room. As we opened the door, we seemed to startle Ann, who slipped on the floor beneath her and fell in front of me. Without thinking, I reached forward and caught her in my arms. Once her initial fright subsided, she seemed to notice that I wasn’t looking at her eyes, and she gave me an irritated grimace. “Sorry,” I chuckled as Lucille helped her regain her footing. 

“How did you guys even get in there?” Ann asked. 

“There’s an airduct leading from the girls’ room to the hot tub,” Lucille explained. “See for yourself.” 

“Huh, then someone could’ve crawled through the duct to spy on us?” Ann recoiled.

“It might have something to do with the case,” I continued. “We found tape in there like the tape used to bind Shiro.” 

“No way!” Ann gasped. “Then the murderer’s also a creeper? Gross! How low can you get?”

Lucille ignored Ann’s question and proceeded to Kari, Ren, and Yusuke, who had recovered the body from the pool and were examining it from top to bottom at the poolside. Ren closed Shiro’s pained eyes while Kari carefully removed the tape from his skin. “Did you find anything?” Lucille asked as I followed behind her. 

“You may want to see this,” Kari answered as she gestured toward Shiro’s chest, which sported a deep, circular hole that had been covered by some of the tape. 

“A puncture wound?” Lucille gasped. 

“The Monokuma File said the victim died from drowning, yes?” Yusuke observed. “In light of this, can we be certain of its authenticity?” 

“I need more time to examine the body,” Kari explained, “but something is definitely fishy here.” 

“I’ll investigate elsewhere in the meantime then,” Lucille offered. She seemed to struggle to keep looking at the body. 

“Right,” Kari agreed. As I followed Lucille away, I heard Kari mutter, “I put away the map for less than an hour, and this happens…” 

“Where are we going next?” I asked as I struggled to keep pace with Lucille’s brisk footsteps. 

“The Ultimate Thespian's lab,” Lucille asserted, “it wasn’t just the tape. I’m fairly certain that screwdriver came from there too.” 

As we reached Reiko’s lab, we saw Takamaru sitting against the wall next to the door. He was clutching his forehead, but he glanced up at us as we approached. “What’s up, Takamaru?” I asked as we approached. 

“My headache’s acting up again,” Takamaru complained. “I think it’s the stress of the trial getting to me.” 

“If it’s alright,” Lucille started, “I’d actually like to ask you something about this case.” 

“Yeah, sure, what’s up?” Takamaru asked. 

“According to the boys’ testimony, you entered the boys’ locker room after Shiro left. I want to see if you have an alibi for that time,” Lucille explained politely but straightforwardly. 

“I don’t,” Takamaru admitted. “I came to the pool after my headache died down, but I didn’t see anybody on my way.” 

“Wait. You didn’t even see Shiro?” I asked. “You must have passed him if you came through the pool.” 

“No, I didn’t see him either,” Takamaru continued. “I just figured he hadn’t shown when he wasn’t in the locker room.” 

“I see,” Lucille responded, “thank you.”

“Hey, what’s with the door?” I asked as I examined the side of the lab's door. Some of the paint on the edge of the door and the adjacent frame had been peeled off. 

“Oh, that’s from Reiko’s tape,” Takamaru answered. 

“Reiko put tape on the door?” I asked. 

“Yeah, it’s not the tape from the body, though,” Takamaru explained. “She took a roll of green tape for herself because it’s the only roll of that color in the lab. Every night, she’s been putting a piece of tape on the door, and she checks it in the mornings after breakfast to make sure no one’s snuck in on their own.” 

“Couldn’t someone just replace the tape?” Lucille inquired. 

“Nah, the tape loses its stickiness after it’s peeled off,” Takamaru continued. “She wasn’t worried about the kitchen since it’s already off-limits at night, but she did the same thing to the Ultimate Lucky Student's lab since the president came up with that rule about going in there alone.” 

“That’s a pretty clever system,” I admired. 

“Is it possible anyone else could have gotten that roll of tape?” Lucille wondered. 

“No, I don’t think so,” the Ultimate Pilot confirmed. “Reiko keeps it locked in my room whenever she’s not using it to replace the tape on one of the doors.” 

“I appreciate the info,” Lucille thanked Takamaru before entering Reiko’s lab. I followed after her, and inside, we found Charlotte searching around the stage. “Have you found anything in here?” Lucille asked the effeminate goliath. 

“Nothing yet,” Charlotte squeaked, “Reiko’s looking backstage to be sure, but she’s pretty sure the tape from the crime scene came from there. I’ve just been making sure nothing’s hidden around the seats or under the stage. Everything’s clear, though.” 

“Have you checked the balcony?” I asked as I gestured toward the controller for the lights. 

“Not yet!” Charlotte squealed, “I’ll look there next!” 

Leaving the Ultimate Cheerleader to her devices, Lucille and I continued backstage, where we found Reiko sorting through an assortment of power tools on her workbench. “Could you confirm whether the tape came from here?” Lucille asked. 

Reiko jumped a bit and clutched her chest when Lucille spoke. She took a deep breath and regained her composure before continuing, “Cripes, don’t startle me like that.”

“Sorry,” Lucille apologized succinctly. 

“Yeah,” Reiko answered, “the tape’s gone, and it’s not just that. The electric screwdriver’s gone missing too. The thing is I’m certain it was here yesterday.” 

“We found the screwdriver in the hot tub room near the crime scene,” I explained. “We’re pretty sure it was used to unscrew the covers of an airduct leading from there to the girls’ room.” 

“That’s definitely suspicious,” Reiko agreed, “but, like, I just can’t figure out how someone could’ve gotten it. I put tape on the door and everything.” 

“Oh yeah,” Lucille chimed in, “Takamaru explained how you used the tape to ensure no one entered this lab or the Ultimate Lucky Student's lab at night.” 

“It wasn’t actually meant to keep people out, exactly,” Reiko clarified. “Someone could’ve still gone in, but if they’d gone in with someone else, like they were supposed to, they’d have a witness to explain what happened to the tape.” 

“And the tape has been accounted for every night?” I asked just to be sure. 

“Yeah,” Reiko explained, “no one’s removed the tape any night since the last trial.” 

“Curious…” Lucille pondered. “We must be running low on time,” she said as she turned to me. “We should check one more place before the trial.” 

“Where’s that?” I asked. 

“The Ultimate Moral Compass's lab,” Lucille explained, “last time, the victim’s lab had pivotal evidence. We can never be too sure.” 

We bade Reiko farewell and waved to Charlotte and Takamaru as we exited the Ultimate Thespian's lab. Then, making our way through the halls, we came to the Ultimate Moral Compass's lab. Lucille and I entered the room, and we found it the same as I remembered. The first place I checked was the unlit elevator. The elevator only had a single button next to it, and the lift was completely unresponsive when I pressed the button experimentally. I tried pulling on the elevator doors just to be certain, but they remained soundly closed. 

“Look at this,” Lucille called to me as she produced a pencil and notepad from under the chair in the center of the room. “The top sheet has been torn off.” 

“Do you think it’s related to the case?” I asked. 

“Only one way to find out,” Lucille declared as she began to shade over the notepad with the pencil. 

“What are you doing?” I asked. 

“It’s an old trick,” she explained. “The shading reveals imprints in the paper formed by whatever was written on the sheet on top of it.” 

“That’s impressive!” I admired as I stared over her shoulder. 

Starting at the bottom, Lucille shaded upward, and as she reached the paper’s halfway point, the white imprint of a single word became clear against the graphite background: “–GALE” 

As the word came into view, Lucille’s pencil lead snapped under the pressure of her sudden stop. “Gale…” she read aloud. 

“Hold on.” I started to back away as Lucille slowly rose to her feet. 

“Did you… leave a note for Shiro to find in his lab?” she asked lowly as her bangs fell in front of her eyes. 

“I didn’t—” 

*Ding dong, dong ding* 

Monokuma appeared on the screen hanging on the lab’s wall. “So, um…” he started, “I’m getting pretty bored, so why don’t we just move along with the class trial? Please go through the red door on the deck of the _S.S. Titanokuma-A_! Puhuhu. See you soon!” 

“Yeah,” Lucille replied in a melancholy tone, “even if you did, it’s probably got nothing to do with the case. Come on. Let’s get this over with.” 

Lucille and I left the Ultimate Moral Compass's lab and headed toward the upper floor. At the staircase, we reunited with our remaining eleven classmates. We continued up the stairs in awkward silence and gradually made our way to the red door on the deck of the ship. The doors opened for us, and we stepped into the clunky freight elevator. 

The thirteen remaining students looked around at each other in the elevator. No one wanted to believe that one of us had killed Shiro, but last time, the killer had been right under our noses. Did Monokuma hold the first trial just so we’d trust him, or was one of us really responsible for Shiro’s death? Taking all of the evidence into account, it certainly seemed possible. 

When the elevator came to a halt, its heavy doors opened before us. We stepped into the trial grounds and made our way to our designated podiums. The crossed-out sign featuring Hifumi’s face remained where it was before, but two new signs had appeared since the last trial as well. Pictures of Kagami and Shiro, each crossed out with a red X, stood on the podiums where the deceased students had debated just a few days before. 

 “Let’s begin with a basic explanation of the class trial,” Monokuma repeated. “Your votes will determine the results. If you can figure out ‘whodunnit,’ only the blackened will receive punishment, but if you pick the wrong one… then I’ll punish everyone _besides_ the blackened, and the one that deceived everyone else will graduate!” 

Like it or not, it was time again. Monokuma proved he wasn’t bluffing when he sank the _S.S. Titanokuma-B_. If we didn’t want to end up like those other students, we had to uncover the truth of Shiro’s death. The memory of those flames made my head swirl, and the room seemed to spin around me as the trial began. 

Noise: I can’t believe we have to do this shit again.

Kari: I can hardly imagine why someone would kill Shiro. 

Takamaru: Yeah, the guy was stuck up, but he wasn’t _that_ stuck up. 

Yusuke: I agree. The case seems quite puzzling this time around. 

Charlotte: Th-There wasn’t any mechanism that could’ve killed Shiro on the killer’s behalf this time, right?

Lucille: Correct, that means **someone murdered Shiro** with their own hands. 

Ann: But how is that possible? We were all in the locker rooms, right? That means **everyone has an alibi**. 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Haruki: Here we go. He’s already at it again. 

Gale: I hate to start pointing fingers, but…

Kari: No, by all means, point away. 

Gale: Well, you see—

Takamaru: I don’t have an alibi. 

Reiko: Babe, you don’t have to say that at the start!

Takamaru: They’ll find out sooner or later. I stayed back because I had a headache. Then, I started to feel better, so I showed up late. I didn’t see anybody on the way, so no one can prove that I’m telling the truth, but I didn’t kill Shiro. I didn’t even see the guy. 

Ren: Sounds suspicious… 

Haruki: Takamaru arrived in the boys’ room after Shiro left. That means, for some time, neither he nor Shiro was accounted for between when we last saw Shiro and Shiro’s time of death. 

Kari: Was it enough time for Shiro to be tied up and drowned? 

Haruki: If I’m being honest, probably. I didn’t exactly check my watch, though. 

Ann: Does that mean **we already know** who the killer is? 

Lucille: This doesn’t necessarily prove he did it. 

Reiko: What the hell, guys? My boyfriend wouldn’t kill Shiro! 

Emiko: This does seem a little too easy… 

Usami: I want to believe in Takamaru! 

Haruki: Well, it’s possible **we’re overlooking someone**. 

**_Gale: I agree with that!_ **

Yusuke: Oh? Do you have someone in mind? 

Gale: Actually, I do. Kari, you also showed up late, didn’t you? 

Noise: Shit, dude, you’re accusing the president? 

Gale: Kari wasn’t with us when we all went into the locker rooms, but she was there when we all came out. 

Ann: Oh yeah, she did show up at the girls’ room late, didn’t she? 

Kari: Yes, I originally wasn’t going to attend, but I felt it would be bad for morale if I didn’t show, so I changed my mind. 

Emiko: Then the president is also a prime suspect? 

Kari: Hardly, I arrived promptly at 2:09 p.m. and remained in the locker room until the body discovery announcement. Since **the time of death was 2:13** , I couldn’t have killed Shiro at that time. 

Haruki: Can anybody else say for certain what time Kari arrived at the girls’ room? 

All of the girls remained silent. 

Haruki: Then, for all we know, you’re making that time up as a coverup. 

Kari: **You’ve got some nerve** accusing me… 

Emiko: Don’t act like you wouldn’t do the same to him. 

Lucille: Well, Kari? Did you see Shiro on your way to the locker rooms? 

Kari: I didn’t. **I must’ve arrived before he left** the boys’ room. 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Kari: That’s wrong? How could you possibly know? 

Gale: Well, when we were changing—

Noise: Don’t you fuckin’ say it, man. 

Gale: Haruki found a hole in the wall. I looked through it to investigate, and I sort of accidentally peeped on all of you while you were changing… 

Ann: You did _what_? 

Charlotte: Are you s-s-serious? 

Noise: You fuckin’ traitor… 

Lucille: So you did know about that… 

Emiko: H-How much did you see?

Takamaru: Wait! You bastards were spying on my girlfriend after all? 

Gale: No! Reiko was in the shower, so I couldn’t see anything! 

Takamaru: Oh, alright, in that case, congrats! 

Reiko: You’re supposed to be on our side! 

Usami: Phew, I’m glad I was in the shower too. I think I would’ve died of embarrassment. 

Kari: Would you kindly explain what your perverted tomfoolery has to do with this case? 

Gale: Well, you see, Shiro left when Haruki tried to get him to look, and I looked after that, but when I looked, Kari, you weren’t in the room. 

Haruki: I admit I may have taken the teensiest peek too, so I can verify that Kari wasn’t there. 

Lucille: That means Kari arrived after Shiro left as well. 

Noise: Then we have n suspects such that n = 2. 

Yusuke: Is there no way for us to narrow our list down further? 

Kari: Why don’t we consider the murder weapon? 

Emiko: **You mean the tape** used to bind the victim’s body? 

Charlotte: If it weren’t for that tape, Shiro would’ve been able to swim up for air. 

Ann: Then where’d the killer get the tape?

Usami: I know! I bet **they got it from the MonoMono Machine**! 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Usami: Huh? But that’s where the weapon came from last time! 

Gale: I’m pretty sure the tape came from the Ultimate Thespian's lab. Reiko, you said a roll of tape like that went missing, right? 

Reiko: Yeah, there was tape in my lab that looked just like it, but it was missing when I checked after the murder. 

Kari: There was some packing tape in the MonoMono Machine, but it wouldn’t have stuck to his body under the water like that. 

Reiko: The tape in my lab was completely waterproof, and it was so tough that no normal person could break it. You had to use the teeth on the end of the roll just to tear off a piece. 

Emiko: Yeah, the stuff from the machine wasn’t nearly that strong. 

Lucille: We found the missing roll of tape in the hot tub room after the murder. 

Ann: Was the killer trying to hide it or something?

Lucille: That’s not all, though. We also found an electric screwdriver. 

Reiko: That was missing from my lab when I checked too! 

Noise: The fuck did the killer need an electric screwdriver? 

Haruki: Clearly, **they were unscrewing something**. 

**_Gale: I agree with that!_ **

Lucille: I’ll let you explain from here, then. 

Gale: There was an air duct wide enough for a person to crawl through connecting the hot tub room to the girls’ locker room. The covers on both sides of the duct had been unscrewed and were hidden alongside the missing tools from Reiko’s lab. 

Charlotte: So the killer was trying to sneak into the girls’ room? 

Ann: Shiro must’ve caught the killer trying to creep on us, and then he was killed in a valiant battle for our honor! 

Kari: Then it can’t be me. I don’t need to sneak into the girls’ room. I can just use my handbook to get in. 

Noise: If the killer wanted to peep, he could’ve just used the hole in the boys’ room. 

Lucille: Regardless of the killer’s intentions, we need to ascertain how those tools got from Reiko’s lab to the pool room. 

Reiko: My lab is one of the restricted rooms, so no one should have gone in there alone. 

Haruki: Do those rules really mean anything to someone willing to kill? 

Kari: As a matter of fact, they do. 

Ren: What do you mean? 

Kari: Since the last trial, I’ve taken the liberty of keeping record of everyone’s activities using data I’ve gathered from the e-Handbook’s map. 

Ann: You’ve been… spying on us? 

Kari: I prefer the term “supervising.” 

Noise: Yo, Pres, that ain’t fuckin’ cool! You can’t just go invadin’ our privacy and shit! 

Kari: “Privacy” is meaningless when everyone’s lives are at stake. 

Lucille: Well then, what did you find? 

Kari: As far as I know, only six people have entered the Ultimate Thespian's lab since our initial exploration of the second floor, and they all entered in groups. Gale and Haruki spent some time in the lab the day after we discovered it. Haruki returned to the lab with Emiko and Noise the next day. Then Reiko and Takamaru entered the lab last night. 

Gale: Then we can conclude that one of those people took the screwdriver and tape. 

**_Emiko: How unlucky!_ **

Emiko’s sudden interjection seemed oddly out of character, and because of that, it threw me off even more. 

Emiko: You’re saying it has to be one of us? 

Emiko: It’s a good thing you’re cute. Otherwise, you couldn’t get away with being that dumb. 

Emiko: The point of the rule was to prevent us from taking things like that from the lab. 

Emiko: Would someone really have stolen those tools with their classmates around? 

Gale: I know the point of the rule, but those tools didn’t steal themselves. 

Gale: Someone must have moved them from the lab to the pool room in secret. 

Gale: If those are the six people who went to the lab, what are the other options? 

Emiko: Are you just going to pick from those six at random then? 

Emiko: You’re missing the point of why that argument doesn’t hold. 

Emiko: Kari is impressive, but she isn’t a machine. She has to sleep sometime. 

Emiko: A **killer would have snuck into the lab at night** while the president was asleep. 

**_Gale: I’ll slice through that argument!_ **

Haruki: He’s starting to sound like Lucille. 

Gale: No one could have accessed the Ultimate Thespian's lab at night. Reiko made sure of that. 

Reiko: That’s right. I put green tape from the lab on the doorway every night and retrieved it the next morning. The tape doesn’t stay sticky after you peel it off, and there was only one roll in that color, so there was no way to replace the tape if it had been removed. 

Yusuke: Then, can we safely assume that the tape had not been tampered with? 

Reiko: Yeah, it was accounted for every night. 

Emiko: Oh, I guess no one went in at night after all. 

Kari: Then the person who moved the tools is one of the six I documented entering the lab. 

Reiko: Well, here’s the thing. I’m not sure about that either. Before Takamaru and I left the lab last night, I checked all of the tools. I’m less sure about the duct tape since there’s more than one roll like it, but that screwdriver was definitely there when I left. 

Takamaru: She put the green tape on the door right after we left too. 

Usami: Then no one took the tools after all? I knew it! **It must have been Monokuma**! 

Kari: No, that just narrows down the list of suspects to Reiko and Takamaru. 

Reiko: Hold on! **Takamaru didn’t take them**! I already said I made sure they were there before we left. 

Lucille: What about you, Takamaru? Did you make sure Reiko hadn’t taken anything? 

Takamaru: Well, not really, I mean, I trust her. 

Charlotte: That’s sweet and all, but then how are we supposed to prove she didn’t do it? 

Haruki: Reiko could’ve also gone in alone at night since she’s the one with the tape for the door. 

Noise: Oh, yeah, I guess she could’ve just replaced the shit herself. 

Takamaru: No, Reiko and I share a room, and **she can’t leave without waking me up**. We went over this in the last trial. 

Kari: Then it seems likely she took them last night when you were in the lab. 

Reiko: Hang on! **Takamaru would’ve noticed** if I had taken them! 

**_Gale: I agree with that!_ **

Reiko: Finally, someone listens to reason. 

Gale: That electric screwdriver had a pretty bulky external battery. Reiko would have needed somewhere to hide it if she took it without Takamaru noticing. 

Yusuke: What exactly are you getting at? 

Gale: Reiko’s dress doesn’t have any pockets, remember? She had to store the note with Shiro’s therapy appointment in her bra. Where would she have hidden something that big? 

Emiko: Did she have some kind of bag? 

Takamaru: She didn’t. I’m sure I would’ve remembered that. 

Kari: Perhaps she hid it under her dress. 

Takamaru: No, that’s not right either. I know because right after we got back to the room, we—

Ann: You don’t need to finish that sentence. 

Haruki: Ahem, can I have everyone’s attention for just a minute? 

Haruki: Thank you, I hate to be the voice of skepticism, but… Ah, who am I kidding? This is so much fun! 

Usami: You’re having fun? But everyone’s lives are in danger! 

Kari: If you have something to say, just say it. 

Haruki: Don’t you think it’s possible that Takamaru and Reiko could be covering for each other? 

Lucille: You’re implying one of them could be an accomplice to the other’s crime? 

Charlotte: W-Would that make both of them the blackened? 

Yusuke: This does beg the question. Monokuma, what happens if there is an accomplice to a murder? 

Monokuma: Hmm, funny you should ask, I suppose there’s no rule against having an accomplice, but even if the murderer gets help from someone, only the student who does the actual killing becomes blackened, and they alone earn the right to graduate. 

Noise: Basically, victim-to-blackened is an _n_ -to-1 ratio, not a 1-to- _n_. 

Kari: In other words, there can be accomplices, but there’s no incentive to act as an accomplice because you would still be executed if the killer graduated. 

Haruki: Yes, that’s true normally, but these two have the power of true love! Wouldn’t such a selfless sacrifice be romantic? 

Takamaru: Bullshit, we’re both getting out of here in one piece. 

Reiko: I love Takamaru, yeah, but not enough to kill myself and all of my friends just on Monokuma’s honor that he gets to leave. 

Kari: Unfortunately, we still can’t deny the possibility. 

Haruki: Takamaru is one of the two students with no alibi after all. 

Lucille: Hold it. There’s still another option we haven’t considered. 

Ann: Huh? What’s that? 

Lucille: Kari is the one who’s been keeping tabs on all of us with her e-Handbook since the last trial. That means, we’re taking her word for it that no one other than the six she recorded has been to the Ultimate Thespian's lab. 

Yusuke: I see. Kari herself could have gone to the lab. She would not have reported it to us if she were the killer. 

Haruki: That’s right… Kari also doesn’t have an alibi. Ooh, the plot thickens! 

Kari: Stop blathering nonsense. Reiko already confirmed the tools were there last night. 

Gale: Maybe that’s the problem… 

Usami: What do you mean?

Gale: We’ve all been talking as though the tools were taken before today, but what if they were taken sometime today before the pool party? 

Takamaru: That would explain why they were there last night. 

Kari: No, according to my notes, we only went to the lab in large numbers. There was no way to be discreet. 

Lucille: Your notes only matter if the killer isn’t you. 

Charlotte: I want to believe in Kari. She’s been keeping such a close eye on us because she’s trying to protect us. 

Emiko: But if Reiko saw the tools in the lab last night… 

**_Monokuma: H-H-H-Hold on!_ **

All of us turned our attention to the monochromatic headmaster as he interjected. 

Monokuma: What’s this? Do I detect a split opinion again? You know what that means! The _S.S. Titanokuma-A_ is proud to present its very own **morphenomenal trial grounds**!

Emiko: Not this again… 

Ann: Those trial grounds stress me out. 

Monokuma: Ready or not! Here it comes! 

Just as before, a large gear rose from the ground in front of Monokuma’s chair. The ursine headmaster pulled a key shaped in his likeness out from under his seat. The mascot gleefully inserted the key into the gear and turned it. Then, blue lights outlined the trial grounds as our podiums started to rise into the air. One after another, the podiums sorted themselves into two distinct rows. Haruki, Charlotte, Kari, Reiko, Noise, Yusuke, and Usami stood on one side while I stood on the other side with the rest. _Were the tools taken from the lab today or before today?_

Haruki: Takamaru is a prime **suspect**. We shouldn’t trust his and Reiko’s testimony. 

Ren: Don’t forget Kari’s also a **suspect**. 

Charlotte: There’s no way Kari would do something like this. She’s trying to protect **everyone**! 

Gale: It’s not just Kari. **Everyone** went to Reiko’s lab today. 

Kari: Could the killer really have taken the tools with all those **witnesses** around? 

Takamaru: The **witnesses** were picking out swimsuits. Why would they be paying attention?

Reiko: I was paying _very_ close attention to all of the **girls**. 

Ann: If the **girls** didn’t take them, it could’ve been one of the boys. 

Noise: Wouldn’t we have noticed if someone walked out with a fucking **screwdriver**? 

Lucille: Is it possible the killer somehow concealed the **screwdriver**? 

Yusuke: Our clothes may have pockets, but they could not have **hidden** something that large. 

Emiko: Could someone have **hidden** the screwdriver _inside_ their clothes? 

Usami: It would look really awkward if you had a bulge sticking out of your **shirt** like that! 

Gale: No, that’s only true if the culprit was _wearing_ his **shirt**. 

**_This is our answer: FULL COUNTER!_ **

Our pedestals circled back to their original positions and slowly descended to the ground. 

Gale: What if the culprit was mostly naked? He could hide the tools in his clothes as he carried them out. 

Noise: Holy shit, I see where you’re goin’ with this. 

Takamaru: Wait a goddamn minute! 

Ren: You don’t mean…

Yusuke: Then the only person who could have taken the tools from the lab is—

Haruki: Shiro Hatori, the victim himself! Hahaha-ha! What a punchline! 

Kari: What are you saying? 

Charlotte: Why would Shiro sneak those tools out of Reiko’s lab? 

Ann: Was _he_ planning to peep on us using the vent? 

Reiko: If it were just that, he wouldn’t have needed the tape. 

_No, that’s not it. There’s only one reason I can think of that Shiro would hide those tools._

Gale: Shiro was planning to **murder** someone. 

**_Lucille: Objection!_ **

Lucille: What the hell do you think you’re talking about?

Lucille: Shiro was the Ultimate Moral Compass. 

Lucille: On top of that, he was the victim. 

Lucille: If he was planning a murder, why was _he_ the one we found dead in the pool? 

Gale: If you put aside your preconceptions about Shiro, the facts add up. 

Gale: Shiro went to the pool room by himself after we picked out swimsuits. 

Gale: He would’ve had plenty of time to plant the tools in the hot tub room. 

Gale: **Shiro could be responsible for everything** we found at the crime scene! 

**_Lucille: I’ll cut through your words!_ **

Lucille: Then you’re saying Shiro is the one who unscrewed the covers to the air duct? 

Lucille: Only the person who took the screwdriver could have done that, correct?

Lucille: But both of the air duct’s covers had been detached. 

Lucille: That means **the culprit is a girl**! 

Lucille: No one else could get into the girls’ room to unscrew the cover there. 

Lucille: Shiro did go with me the other night to investigate the locker room. 

Lucille: But I would have noticed if he had removed that cover! 

Lucille: If Shiro couldn’t go to the girls’ locker room on his own…

Lucille: That means **he couldn’t have detached the cover** on that side of the air duct!

**_Gale: I’ll slice through that argument!_ **

Lucille: Well then, let’s hear it. 

Gale: You saw the covers to the air duct too, remember? You said yourself the bars seemed weirdly far apart. 

Lucille: What are you suggesting? 

Gale: I’m saying Shiro could have removed the cover from the hot tub room and crawled into the air duct. Then, when he got to the other side, he reached through the bars of the other cover with the screwdriver and unscrewed that cover from _within_ the air duct. 

Lucille: That… might _theoretically_ be possible. 

Haruki: Still, all of that is a pretty bold claim. If Kari were the culprit, she could have unscrewed the cover from the girls’ room like Lucille suggested. 

Kari: Didn’t you say you found the covers in the hot tub room with the tools? 

Lucille: Yes, we did. 

Kari: If I had set all of that up beforehand, I wouldn’t have left them in such an obvious place. 

Takamaru: Yeah, that certainly makes it look like the killer left them there on the fly. 

Noise: You think the culprit unscrewed those vents while we were all in the locker rooms? 

Reiko: That would explain why the evidence was left so close to the crime scene. 

Usami: Could someone really have unscrewed the covers with all of us in the room?

Charlotte: Yeah, I think **we definitely would’ve heard it**. 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Charlotte: Huh? Don’t power tools make a lot of noise?

Gale: Maybe most of them do, but this screwdriver was completely silent. Lucille and I tried it out to be sure. 

Emiko: Then, none of us would have heard it even though we were in the same room. 

Kari: If that’s true, and the culprit unscrewed the air duct while we were in the locker room, I highly doubt it could have been one of the girls. 

Reiko: **Miaya and I were in the shower** the whole time, so it couldn’t have been one of us. 

Usami: Yay! I’m so glad **I have an alibi** this time! 

Charlotte: It’s not just the showers, wouldn’t we have noticed someone unscrewing the cover of the air duct? 

Lucille: I admit **that would have been hard to miss**. 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Lucille: Are you sure? I would think something like that would be pretty obvious. 

Gale: Well, I don’t necessarily think one of you unscrewed the cover, but you probably wouldn’t have noticed if someone did. Didn’t the girls’ room fill up with steam from the showers? 

Ann: Now that you mention it, it was pretty hard to see anything after a bit. 

Charlotte: That room was really poorly ventilated. 

Takamaru: Oh yeah, I noticed that too when I looked through the hole in the wall. 

Reiko: Wait! You looked through the peephole too? 

Kari: Hold on. How would the culprit have snuck the tools into the locker room? 

Haruki: If the culprit were a girl, she could have hidden them in a locker beforehand. 

Takamaru: If that’s true, why wouldn’t she hide the covers beforehand too? 

Lucille: Perhaps the culprit thought we would notice if the covers were missing at the start. 

Yusuke: Then, **we have no way of knowing** whether the cover was removed from the locker room or from inside the vent? 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Haruki: What’ve you got for us this time?

Gale: Lucille and I found a loose screw from one of the covers near the air duct in the girls’ room. You could operate the electric screwdriver with one hand, so if the culprit had unscrewed it from within the room, they could have used their other hand to catch the screws as they came out. However, if the culprit were within the air duct, it would have been difficult to position both of your hands through the bars to do the same thing. 

Yusuke: Perhaps the culprit merely dropped a screw. 

Kari: Wouldn’t the culprit have been unable to catch any of the screws if they were within the duct then? 

Gale: That might be true, but I’m sure they still tried to gather all of the screws up afterward. 

Lucille: Then you’re saying the culprit missed one on account of all the steam in the room. 

Gale: That’s definitely a possibility, or if it rolled a little farther away, they wouldn’t have been able to reach it without stepping out of the duct. 

Reiko: If someone suddenly came out of the air duct, I’m pretty sure we would have noticed even with all the steam. 

Noise: Then the most likely explanation is that cover was removed from within the duct. 

Ann: Hold on. I’m still lost on this whole air duct thing.

Ren: What do you mean? 

Ann: I get that you could use the air duct to sneak into the girls’ room, but…

Emiko: Yes? 

Ann: Why would the killer need a secret route from the hot tub to the girls’ room anyway?

Charlotte: Oh yeah, since **Shiro was the victim** , you wouldn’t need to get into the girls’ room to kill him. 

Haruki: Furthermore, if Shiro were planning a murder, why would he want to sneak into the girls’ room with everyone there? 

Lucille: The new rule prevents us from killing more than two people, so even if he had snuck in and killed two of us, there would be plenty of witnesses to incriminate him in the subsequent trial. 

Yusuke: If you consider all of that, it seems more likely **the airduct was used to sneak** **_out_**. 

**_Gale: I agree with that!_ **

Gale: I think Shiro used the tools from Reiko’s lab to open the airduct from the hot tub to the girls’ room, but then, after that, someone from the girls’ room used the duct to sneak over to the hot tub. 

Kari: If that’s true, then the person who snuck over to the hot tub room—

Haruki: Would almost certainly be the killer! 

Takamaru: Hold up. Let me make sure I’m following. You’re saying _Shiro_ snuck the tools out of Reiko’s lab. Then, _Shiro_ opened the air duct between the hot tub and the girls’ room because he was planning to kill somebody. But, then, someone else used the air duct to sneak out of the girls’ room, and that person killed Shiro. 

Usami: So the culprit became the victim, and the intended victim became the killer? 

Lucille: That’s absolutely preposterous. If Shiro were planning to kill whoever snuck into the hot tub room, he could have gotten the drop on them and done so easily. Are you suggesting that his target managed to overpower him, tape up his entire body, drag him to the pool, and throw him in to drown? 

Noise: That would not be a normal line. Did you see Shiro’s abs? Homeboy was not to be fucked with. 

Haruki: Charlotte could have overpowered him, couldn’t she? 

Charlotte: What? You’re s-suspecting me again because of my size? 

Emiko: Could Charlotte have fit through the air ducts in the first place? 

Lucille: No, that duct was a tight squeeze even for Gale and me. There’s no way Charlotte could have fit through. 

Yusuke: Then how was the killer able to restrain Shiro if **he fought back**? 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Gale: Hear me out on this. What if Shiro didn’t resist?

Ann: Huh? If he was planning to kill someone, he wouldn’t just let them tie him up. 

Gale: No, of course he wouldn’t, but if the killer couldn’t have overpowered him, he must have been tied up without a fight. 

Haruki: Ooh, think he was into bondage? 

Lucille: He most certainly was not! 

Kari: Why do you sound so sure about that? 

_No, there’s only one plausible explanation. There’s only one reason Shiro wouldn’t have resisted being restrained like that._

Gale: Shiro was **already dead** before the killer tied him up. 

Noise: Then how the fuck did he drown? Could the bastard not swim up 2 meters of water? 

Charlotte: Did the killer drown him in the hot tub? 

Yusuke: Would drowning him in the hot tub not posit the same conundrum of needing to overpower him? 

Gale: No, you’re right. Shiro didn’t drown in the pool or the hot tub. He was killed by something else. 

I recalled the crime scene… My memory of Shiro’s body came to the forefront of my mind, and I noted the suspicious area that had piqued my attention. 

Gale: Kari, when you examined Shiro’s body, you found a puncture wound in his chest. What if that was his fatal injury? It looked pretty deep. 

Ann: Um, hello! The Monokuma File says Shiro died from drowning! 

Kari: Actually, Gale might be right. That wound punctured Shiro’s trachea just above the lungs. With that hole, his blood and other fluids might have flooded through his trachea and filled his lungs. 

Haruki: Shiro drowned in his own _blood_? 

Noise: That’s hard-fucking-core! 

Lucille: But a wound like that would have left bloodstains. **There weren’t any bloodstains** near the scene of the crime! 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Usami: Um, how can there be bloodstains if there were no bloodstains? 

Gale: There was a control on the hot tub that allowed you to drain the tub. If Shiro were killed in the hot tub, his blood would have ended up in the tub’s water. Then, the killer could have drained the hot tub with the blood still in it, effectively destroying the evidence. 

Reiko: Then, is that why the killer bound Shiro’s body with tape? 

Gale: Yeah, the killer probably used the tape to stop the bleeding, and they bound his arms and legs too in order to trick us into thinking the tape had been used to drown him. 

Takamaru: So, the killer murdered Shiro in the hot tub, drained the blood, taped him up, dragged him to the pool, threw him in, and then moseyed back through the air duct and into the girls’ room while no one was any the wiser? 

Lucille: Do you have any evidence at all to support this hypothesis? 

Gale: Yes, I do actually. Think about the floor in the pool room. The floor between the hot tub and the pool was wet. I know because Ann slipped on it and fell into my arms. You were there, remember? 

Ann: Oh yeah, the floor was pretty slippery there. I just thought the water had been splashed up from the pool. 

Gale: No one had used the pool before today, right? That means there was no reason for water to have splashed up onto the floor around it. Besides, Shiro said he made sure the floors were dry after we picked out our swimsuits. 

Kari: If Shiro were killed in the hot tub, both the body and the killer would be soaking wet. If they didn’t take the time to dry off first, it would make sense that they’d leave a trail of water. 

Haruki: If the killer had snuck off from the girls’ room in secret, I think they’d try to move as quickly as possible. It was only a matter of time before someone noticed they were gone, after all. 

Charlotte: U-Um, I’m still having a hard time wrapping my head around this. Shiro was going to kill someone, but then he was killed? 

Emiko: Let’s summarize the case again from the top so we’re all on the same page. 

**_Gale: This is what really happened!_ **

Gale: This case started earlier today while we were all picking out swimsuits from the Ultimate Thespian's lab. While the boys were distracted, the culprit stole a roll of tape and an electric screwdriver from the lab. He was able to smuggle these tools out by hiding them in his clothes, which he carried in his arms as we left the Ultimate Research Lab. After successfully stealing the tools, the culprit volunteered to go to the pool under the premise of ensuring it was safe for us to use in the party. Really, the culprit’s true intention was to lay a trap for one of us. 

Gale: The culprit hid the tools in the hot tub room and then regrouped with us. Later, when we all went to the pool, the culprit led all of us into his trap by insisting that we take showers before swimming. He somehow knew the showers in the girls’ room would create enough steam for him to execute his plan. Then, while all of us were occupied in the locker rooms, the culprit left early and made his way back to the hot tub room. Because he was in the hot tub room, neither Kari nor Takamaru saw him as they came through the pool room to catch up with us. 

Gale: From within the hot tub room, the culprit used the stolen screwdriver to detach the cover of the air duct connecting that room to the girls’ room. He crawled through the air duct with the screwdriver in hand, and when he came to the other side, he reached through the gaps in the cover on that side of the duct to unscrew it as well. After that, he must have taken the cover along with the screws he could retrieve and crawled backwards through the duct to return to the hot tub room. 

Gale: Following this, one of the girls left their locker room by crawling through the now-uncovered air duct. No one noticed because the room was so full of steam that the girls could barely see their hands in front of their faces. The culprit must have been expecting whoever it was to go through the air duct and come to the hot tub room. I believe he was planning to ambush her there and carry out his plan to kill her. 

Gale: However, the target managed to turn the tables when she took the screwdriver from her attacker. Then, the target stabbed the culprit with his own screwdriver. At that moment, they switched roles: the culprit became the victim, and the target became the killer. The victim must have been in the hot tub when he was stabbed because the blood from the wound was nowhere to be found. With that in mind, the killer could have disposed of any blood simply by draining the hot tub. They could also have used the water from the tub to wash any blood off themselves, the body, and the screwdriver. 

Gale: Once the killer realized what they’d done, they must have been desperate to disguise the truth of the case. They used the nearby tape to close the victim’s wound and bind his body. Then, they dragged the victim’s corpse out of the hot tub room and threw him in the pool to make it seem like he had drowned there. Afterward, the killer returned to the hot tub room, crawled through the air duct back to the girls’ room, and mingled with the rest of the girls. When the body discovery announcement played, they ran outside with everyone else, creating the illusion that they had an alibi inside the girls’ room the entire time. 

Gale: I still don’t know who the killer is, but this means the person who originally planned a murder, the culprit who initiated this entire case, is the victim himself, Shiro Hatori! 

**_Lucille: Hold it!_ **

Lucille: No, I refuse to accept this. 

Lucille: I object. I object. I object! 

Lucille: How can you say Shiro tried to kill someone? 

Lucille: Kari is still the prime suspect. 

Lucille: She could have stolen the tools and hidden them in the locker room beforehand. 

Lucille: Then she could unscrew the vent covers, sneak into the hot tub room, and kill Shiro!

Lucille: I don’t know how she knew he’d be in the hot tub room. 

Lucille: Maybe she saw him on her way into the girls' room. 

Lucille: Maybe she was planning something else and just ran into him there. 

Lucille: Then she killed him to eliminate him as a witness! 

Lucille: If the killer wasn’t the one planning a murder… 

Lucille: **They had no reason to sneak out** of the girls’ room!

**_Gale: I’ll discover the truth here and now!_ **

Usami: Huh, why would someone sneak out of the locker room without telling anyone?

Gale: The killer could have been lured out by the **note from Shiro’s lab**. 

Lucille: What does that have to do with any of this?

Ann: Would someone mind explaining what this note is? 

Gale: Lucille and I found a notepad under the chair in Shiro’s lab. One of the pages was missing, so she used a pencil to reveal the imprint on the paper left by the missing note. She was only able to reveal the bottom of it before the pencil broke, but the note had my name written at the bottom like a signature. Here’s the thing: I didn’t write that note. 

Haruki: Perhaps the killer left the note in order to lure Shiro to the hot tub room. 

Kari: Do you have the imprint of the note on you? 

Lucille presented the notepad we had recovered from Shiro’s lab. Over the graphite background, my name could easily be seen in a white outline on the bottom of the page. 

Kari: That isn’t my handwriting. Even you should know that. 

Lucille: Yes, I agree… I don’t know Gale’s or Shiro’s handwriting, but this definitely wasn’t written by Kari… 

Gale: No matter what you might think, I didn’t write that note. 

Yusuke: I doubt Gale has any reason to lie about not writing it since he has maintained a solid alibi throughout the case. 

Takamaru: If the note was written by the killer to lure Shiro to the hot tub, and Kari didn’t write it, then either Kari isn’t the killer, or the note wasn’t used to lure Shiro to the hot tub. 

Kari: That’s not all. According to my data, no one except Shiro has entered the Ultimate Moral Compass's lab since we discovered it. 

Charlotte: If Kari didn’t write the note, she’d have no reason to lie about that! 

Noise: I guess someone could’ve fucked off while we were asleep to write it, but… 

Reiko: The answer that makes the most sense is that Shiro wrote the note himself. 

Usami: But what could Shiro have written to make someone sneak off like that? 

Ann: And why would he forge Gale’s signature on the note? 

Emiko: It was a love letter. 

Lucille: What? 

Emiko: I know because I received it. 

Emiko produced a letter from her swim skirt’s pocket. She covered most of the contents with her hand, but she showed us the bottom, which had my forged signature, identical to the imprint on Lucille’s paper, written in pencil. 

Emiko: I thought the message was from Gale. It said he couldn’t keep his feelings for me hidden any longer. It asked me to sneak through the air duct to meet with him in private in the hot tub. It said he didn’t want the others to find out. 

Lucille: Wait… Emiko, does that mean? 

Emiko: Yes, I’m the one who killed Shiro… 

Kari: H-Hold on. That doesn’t make any sense. Why would you…? 

Charlotte: No! I can’t believe you’d do something like that!

Haruki: Wow, even I didn’t see this twist coming… 

Noise: Hey, Emiko, you’re fuckin’ with us, right? 

Usami: You didn’t really kill Shiro, did you? 

Emiko: You’ve already figured out the truth, right, Gale? Prove it, then. Please, prove to them that I’m the one who did it. 

Charlotte: I-I still think **we would have noticed** if Emiko had suddenly disappeared for that long! 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong…_ **

Gale: Emiko doesn’t talk all that much. It wouldn’t be strange if she went quiet for a few minutes like that… 

Usami: If Emiko fought Shiro in the hot tub, the **water would have messed up her makeup**! But it’s still perfect! 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong…_ **

Gale: There’s waterproof makeup in the Ultimate Thespian's lab. Kari said Emiko went to the lab with Haruki and Noise the other day. She must have gotten it there…

Noise: Why the fuck would someone agree to do something that suspicious? Like, sneaking off to meet someone like that just screams, “Kill me!” **Emiko had no fucking motive**!

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong…_ **

Gale: Emiko did what the note said because she has a crush on me. She wanted to believe I reciprocated her feelings. That’s why Shiro targeted her and used my name… 

Lucille: You two barely know each other! Why would she think you suddenly fell in love with her and wanted to meet her in private? **That’s too unrealistic**! 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong…_ **

Gale: Sure, the odds of your crush doing that out of the blue are probably one in a million, but Emiko’s the Ultimate Lucky Student. For her, those odds aren’t unrealistic at all. In fact, she’s the only one who’d believe it would be possible… 

The room fell silent, and after a long while, Emiko spoke up, “Well, there it is…”

My classmates were dumbstruck. Everyone seemed to be at a loss for words. 

“Monokuma, please, let’s start the voting,” Emiko requested. “I… I don’t think I can take this any longer…” 

“Alright! If you say so!” Monokuma agreed. “This trial has gone on long enough anyway! You heard her, everyone! It’s voting time! Again, please be sure to vote for someone. It would be a shame for one of you to be executed on such a minor technicality.” 

Screens folded out of the podiums in front of us, and our faces were displayed on a four-by-four grid. Like Hifumi’s, Kagami’s and Shiro’s faces were each now covered by a red X. There was a long pause before I finally worked up the nerve to tap the icon that displayed Emiko’s face. Afterward, the touchscreen folded back into my podium. A large television lit up behind Monokuma’s chair. It listed all of our names and adjacent tally marks. The list featured one vote for Kari, one vote for Shiro, and eleven votes for Emiko. 

“Congratulations!” Monokuma cheered, “You all got it right! Shiro’s killer is the one and only Emiko Sakurai!” 

“For what it’s worth, I didn’t…” Emiko trailed off for a moment. “I didn’t want to kill him… He came at me with the screwdriver, and I… I grabbed it and tried to fight him off, but then he slipped on the wet floor, and he fell into me, and… and I stabbed him…”

“Emiko…” Charlotte could only seem to muster the strength to say her name. 

“As soon as he came at me, I knew my fate was sealed…” Emiko explained. “Either I died at his hand, or I killed him and died in the class trial. I just… I wanted to borrow some more time. I had hoped that the class trial would reveal why he did it, but… I guess I’m not that lucky…”

“So Shiro really did…” Lucille seemed unable to finish her sentence. 

“Gale,” Emiko started as she stepped out from behind her podium and approached me, “I don’t want you to blame yourself for what happened. I don’t… I don’t regret what I did… You were the first person who made me feel like I had a choice in my life, and right until the end, I made my choice… I chose to live… just a little longer… because I wanted to say…” Tears began to well up in the dark-haired student’s eyes. I found myself choking on a whirlwind of emotions as I stared helplessly down at her. “I wanted to tell you… how much that meant to me… because if I had died back then, I would never have gotten the chance… to thank you…” 

“Now then!” Monokuma interjected, “I’ve prepared a very special punishment for Emiko Sakurai, the Ultimate Lucky Student!” 

“Emiko, you—” I started, but the blackened girl covered my mouth with one hand. 

“Don’t say anything. Just… Just let me imagine what I’d want you to say, please…” she cried. 

“Let’s give it everything we’ve got!” Monokuma cheered. “It’s **_punishment time_**!” 

Monokuma produced a gavel from under his seat, and he slammed the gavel down onto a big, red button that rose from the ground in front of his chair. Consequently, one of the walls of the trial ground opened, and a metal collar attached to a long chain burst from the opening. Emiko took my hands and placed a small object between my palms. She looked up at me and smiled through her tears. Then, she leaned forward and kissed my cheek. “I love you too,” she whispered as her lips came to my ear. As soon as the words escaped, the collar snapped around her neck and jerked her backwards through the opening. On the television over Monokuma’s chair, the words “WHEEL OF DESPAIR” appeared in pixelated letters. 

True to the title, the chain dragged Emiko into the air and connected her to a massive arrow that resembled the hand of a clock. Behind the arrow was a gargantuan roulette-style wheel separated by lines and various colors into five equally-sized sections: FIRE, ACID, COLD, POISON, and LIGHTNING. Monokuma—now suddenly wearing an elegant, red, gown—spun the wheel behind the arrow while strobe lights blared from behind the mechanism. 

When the wheel finally came to a halt, the arrow was pointing toward a tiny, previously-unseen sliver on the wheel between FIRE and ACID labeled, “GET OUT OF JAIL FREE!” Monokuma gave the wheel a frustrated look, and he kicked the wheel, which jostled the sizeable mechanism considerably. After some shaking, the arrow now pointed toward the bright green section of the wheel labeled, “ACID,” and celebratory confetti exploded from behind the wheel as the strobe lights turned a sickly green color. 

The floor beneath Emiko opened up to reveal a sizeable vat of bubbling acid with no lid. The vat rose out of the ground, and after giving us a final look of desperation, Emiko was released from her chains, and she fell down into the vat. After a moment, a hatch opened up near the bottom of the vat, and a wave of acid spilled out onto the floor in front of it. As the spilled acid ate through the ground, we could see a skeleton—all that remained of Emiko—slowly dissolving into the middle of the puddle. 


	6. Chapter 3: A Tale of Two (Sinking) Ships - Daily Life

I didn’t leave my room the next morning. I had dragged myself back to the dormitory the day before, glared for a while at the sealed doors to Shiro’s and Emiko’s rooms, and lain awake in bed through Monokuma’s nighttime and morning announcements. I wasn’t sure if I had slept at all between them, or if I had just spent the night gazing into the buttoned eyes of Emiko’s parting gift: a palm-length voodoo doll wearing clothes identical to her own.

I neglected to go to the restaurant for breakfast that morning, but as time dragged on, I eventually heard the ring of my doorbell. Unsure of who was there, I quickly moved my golden katana from my coffee table to under my bed. Then, I opened the threshold to find Lucille, who was looking more at my shoes than me. “Good morning,” she said quietly, “may I come in?” She was carrying a tray with some rice, soup, and mackerel. 

“Sure…” I answered. 

The Ultimate Prosecutor entered and closed my door behind her. “You didn’t come to breakfast, so I wanted to bring you some,” she said as she placed the tray down on my coffee table. 

I sat on one side of the table while she knelt on the other. “Sorry, I’m not really hungry,” I explained. 

“Honestly, I’m not either,” Lucille admitted, “but we need to keep our strength up.” 

“How’s everyone else?” I asked as I reluctantly took a spoonful of soup and ingested it. 

“Nobody’s seen Kari,” Lucille shared. “The map says she’s downstairs. Everyone else seems alright. They were a little out of it, but they seem to be taking it better than the first time.” 

“Think we’re getting used to it?” I asked. 

“I hope not,” Lucille sighed. “I honestly think it’s more likely that they aren’t as close to the victims this time. We all just met Shiro, after all, and even though most of us care about Emiko, she’s always been a bit standoffish.” 

“What about you?” I continued. 

“I don’t know…” Lucille admitted. “Emiko and I didn’t talk much, but I always considered her a friend.” 

“I meant about Shiro,” I clarified. “I mean, you took it pretty hard back at the trial, and I know you and Shiro were, well—” 

“Just, please, forget about whatever you saw that night,” Lucille interrupted as she bowed her head formally in front of me. “I’m sorry,” she continued. 

“N-No,” I stammered, “I was the one who walked in on—” 

“I mean about the trial,” she corrected me. “I asked for your help to find Shiro’s killer, but then I spent the whole trial arguing with you. I just—” 

“I can get not wanting to believe he targeted Emiko,” I sighed. 

“I was just so convinced it was Kari. I thought for sure all of the evidence pointed to her.” Lucille gripped the hem of her skirt and bit her lip in frustration. 

“What exactly is up with you two?” I asked. “I know you were rivals or whatever, but this is…” 

“Has Kari told you anything?” Lucille inquired. 

“She said you put aside your differences to work on the Genocide Jack case after he—well—after your last boyfriend was, um…” I trailed off, not wanting to salt any recent wounds. 

“Then she told you about her old title,” Lucille inferred. “Kari and I have compatible talents,” she elaborated. “Even before we started at Hope’s Peak, we worked together to solve a few cases, but because we were always working on the same thing, it sort of became a competition to see which of us contributed more to each case.” 

“But if you two were both contributing,” I argued, “why compete about it?” 

“Well, I don’t think it was just about the cases,” Lucille confided. “Kari had someone she wanted to impress, the previous Ultimate Student Council President, Munakata-senpai. I think she thought I wanted his attention too,” Lucille admitted. 

“Did you?” I asked plainly. 

“No,” Lucille replied, “at the time, I had my eye on one of his classmates, Goro Akechi, the Ultimate Detective.” 

“He does sound like your type,” I agreed. 

“He was a remarkable investigator who played a pivotal role in solving many of the mental shutdown and psychotic breakdown cases last year,” Lucille admired, “and he fairly investigated the Phantom Thieves even when their popularity was on the rise or people didn’t believe they existed. He had an unwavering sense of justice, and I really, really admired that about him.” 

“How’d that work out?” I continued. 

“I don’t think he ever really noticed me,” Lucille sighed. “I gave up on him shortly after Kari and I had our falling-out, and I was in a pretty dark place for a while after that, but then Daisuke showed up out of nowhere, and he made me feel special again, more special than I had ever felt around Kari or Akechi-senpai.” 

“I’m really sorry about what happened,” I replied. 

“I know it wasn’t my fault, but—” Lucille stopped as she wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. 

I finished my soup and waited a moment for Lucille to regain her composure. “You alright?” I asked. 

“I’m starting to think I’m cursed,” Lucille cried a little. “First Daisuke, now Shiro—even Akechi-senpai went missing last year… I’m scared… I’m scared something will happen to you too.” 

“Wait. You mean me, specifically?” I asked. “Hold on. Do you…?” 

“I can’t answer that right now,” Lucille sniffled as she breathed deeply to regain her composure a little, “but so far, both of the victims have been transfer students. I know Shiro initiated the last murder, and Kagami was targeting transfer students specifically, but I still don’t think it’s a coincidence. Honestly, logically speaking, you’re the most likely to be next, so please, Gale, please promise me you won’t die.” 

“I promise,” I assured her as I reached over the table to put a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll get out of here alive, no matter what it takes.” 

“Thanks,” Lucille smiled as she seemed to finally return to normal, “there’s something else I needed to tell you, actually.” 

“What’s up?” I asked. 

“Monokuma visited us again this morning,” Lucille explained. “As we expected, he opened more of the ship, but he didn’t offer a new motive this time. When Haruki asked, he just kind of grumbled about how the last two murders had nothing to do with his motives.” 

“Have you checked out the new areas yet?” I inquired. 

“No, the others have already gone downstairs to look, but I was hoping you’d join me again,” Lucille replied. 

“Alright,” I affirmed as I stood from the table and hardened my resolve, “let’s go. We might find something even more useful this time.” 

Lucille and I left my room and headed downstairs. We came to the hallway on the second floor that had previously been blocked, and beyond it we found a staircase leading further down into the ship. Like the previous floor, the hall branched in three separate directions at the base of the stairs. Starting with the middle route, Lucille and I came to a golden door decorated with festive lights that blinked in a variety of colorful patterns. The door featured a silhouetted depiction of a circus tent, complete with a tiny, triangular flag hoisted atop its pointy zenith. “I almost don’t want to go in,” Lucille admitted. 

Taking a deep breath, Lucille opened the gaudy doorway and entered a world of dazzling lights, reflective furnishings, and nonsensical props. In the center of the sizeable room, Haruki cackled maniacally as he stood on his tiptoes atop a gigantic beach ball and balanced a lit torch on the tip of his nose while juggling three plates, two billiards balls, and a rubber chicken. Charlotte lay on a bench press nearby and sweated profusely as she lifted a bar whose ends sported spherical weights shaped like Monokuma’s head. Reiko kept a close eye on the two and took careful notes on their performance using what I presumed to be the notepad from the Ultimate Moral Compass's lab and a fountain pen shaped like a dildo. 

“Can we not?” Lucille asked me plainly. 

“We can not,” I agreed, and Lucille closed the door. 

“I’ll investigate that room later when it’s not so… noisy,” she assured herself. 

Turning around, we made our way down a different hallway. This time, we came upon a door on either side of the hall. To our right, there was a set of metallic double-doors, each featuring a centered square window at eye level. To our left, there was a lone, wooden door marked with a picture of a fingerprint. 

Lucille started by investigating the double-doors to our right. As we stepped through them, we entered a small office featuring two hospital beds separated by a curtain. Along the walls were a few IVs and a shelf holding scalpels, syringes, and all manner of medical supplies as well as receptacles for biohazard disposal. There was also a foldable wheelchair propped up against one of the walls. On the wall to the left, there was a large cabinet with several glass doors, behind which were more shelves of pharmaceutical bottles. Takamaru stood in front of the cabinet holding one of those bottles. “Hey guys!” he called as we entered. 

“What is this place?” I wondered aloud. 

“It would seem to be an infirmary,” Lucille deduced. “It’s strange that Monokuma would provide us with a facility designed to _prevent_ death.” 

“Well, if you got sick and died on me, it wouldn’t be very much fun, now would it?” Monokuma exclaimed as he emerged from under the hospital bed. Lucille, Takamaru, and I jumped a little at his sudden appearance. “Dying of sickness is pretty much the only thing that doesn’t count as murder around here, and a death with no trial would be un _bear_ ably wasteful!” 

“What about these?” Lucille asked as she examined one of the medicine cabinet’s doors. 

“Those? Oh, those are my own very special brand of lethal, fast-acting poisons!” Monokuma chuckled. 

“Well, that’s going to be the first to go,” Lucille deadpanned as she started to open the door, but the glass door remained fixed in its position. Upon closer inspection, she noticed an adjacent e-Handbook scanner affixed to the side of the medicine cabinet. Experimentally, she swiped her handbook over the scanner, but it only blipped red at her angrily in reply. 

“Pres already tried that,” Takamaru explained. “Glass is bulletproof too. There’s no getting to them.” 

“Does anyone’s handbook unlock the door?” I asked. 

“Not so far,” Takamaru answered, “Pres made Noise, Miaya, and I all try after it wouldn’t open for her.” I swiped my handbook over the scanner as well, and it remained locked. 

“What’s the point of the lock if it doesn’t open for anyone?” Lucille asked. 

“Puhuhu, we’ll just have to wait and see!” Monokuma giggled before disappearing back under the bed. 

“Well, foreshadowing potential murder mysteries aside, the stuff that _isn’t_ poison is good shit!” Takamaru exclaimed. “This right here got rid of my migraine! I feel right as plane!” 

Lucille corrected, “I believe the expression is ‘right as r—”

“No, no it is not,” Takamaru interrupted. 

On that note, Lucille and I looked around through the infirmary. A faint shimmer drew me to a Monocoin inside a transparent bottle of multivitamins, and I found a second Monocoin under one of the hospital beds. An investigation of one of the shelves yielded a third Monocoin beneath a first-aid kit, and a fourth Monocoin was hidden in a minifridge containing packets of plasma for transfusions. Finding nothing else out of the ordinary, Lucille and I left the infirmary and investigated the door on the other side of the hall. 

Upon stepping through the doorway, we found a dimly-lit office space with dark, carpeted flooring and gray walls. Kari sat at a large desk against the left wall with the keyboard of a nearby desktop computer at her fingertips. Noise stared over her shoulder as she typed away and occasionally glanced down at her paper notes. Miaya examined a variety of scientific tools that filled the remainder of the lab. One device I recognized as a thermal cycler I had seen in a textbook, and another resembled a machine used to give CAT scans, but the rest was completely foreign to me. 

“Why the hell are you still at that?” Noise asked Kari. 

“I told you I’m transcribing my data from the past few days into a digital format so I can properly analyze behavioral patterns,” Kari replied. 

“And I told you you’re doin’ it wrong,” Noise retorted. 

“How would you suggest I do it then?” Kari replied as she turned in her chair and peered up at Noise. 

“There’s a copy machine right there,” Noise pointed out. “Give me, like, an hour, and I’ll write an image recognition algorithm that just converts all the papers to text for you. Hell, I bet I could even improve whatever analysis engine this piece of crap uses while I’m at it.” 

“Out of the question,” Kari answered, “that would allow you to tamper with the data.” 

“Alright, it’s bad enough you’re fuckin’ spyin’ on us, but you ain’t got the right to just treat us all like criminals!” Noise raised his voice. 

“I neglected my duties as president for less than an hour, and we lost two more classmates,” Kari bit back. “If I had been watching the map, I would have immediately known that Emiko had left the girls’ locker room and had been in the hot tub room at Shiro’s time of death. Then, the class trial would have gone much more smoothly.” 

“How exactly would that have prevented either of their deaths?” Noise disagreed as he encroached on her personal space. 

“That’s not the point!” Kari shouted. “At the very least, it would have served as an example for other students to know they had no chance of getting away with murder!” 

“That’s a fucked-up way to talk about your ‘precious classmates!” Noise yelled back. 

“That’s some talk coming from the guy who went berserk as soon as he lost a crush he’d known for less than a week!” Kari rebutted. 

Noise bit his lip and furled his eyebrows. “You… need to get… off your _fucking high horse_ … before someone drags you off it.” 

“Was that a threat?” Kari deadpanned. 

“You bet your goddamn life it was,” Noise growled before furiously kicking Kari’s desk and storming out of the room. “The fuck are you lookin’ at?” he asked as he shoved past Lucille and me and marched through the door. 

After a painfully long silence, Miaya typed into her e-Handbook and allowed Usami to speak on her behalf. “Want me to try talking to him?” the leporine avatar asked the president. 

“No, he stops listening to reason when he’s like this,” Kari sighed. “Would you mind helping me verify these behavioral analyses I’ve been running? Your expertise would really help my confidence in the results.” 

At this point, I noticed a second metal door in the back of the Ultimate Research Lab. I approached to investigate, and I found the door was locked by another e-Handbook scanner. This scanner, however, also denied me entry when I swiped my handbook over it. Lucille followed me and repeated my experiment, but her handbook also failed to unlock the door. “Where does this go?” I asked, desperate for a change of subject. 

“Who knows?” Kari replied dryly without looking away from her computer. “No one’s handbook opens it so far, but we’ll make sure of that by the end of the day.” 

“This is a pretty impressive setup,” I complimented, staring around at the different machines. 

“Yes, with this lab, there should be absolutely no question regarding the identity of any potential killers,” Kari bragged. “Hopefully, that knowledge will deter future killings altogether.” 

“That would certainly be ideal,” Lucille agreed. 

“Did you and your boyfriend of the week come here to help,” Kari asked the Ultimate Prosecutor from behind a glare of light covering her glasses, “or are you just here to accuse me more? That is pretty much all you’re good at, isn’t it?” 

Another awkward silence filled the room. Miaya started to type something into her e-Handbook, but Lucille cut her off, “No, Miaya, it’s fine. She’s right. Gale, we should stop distracting the president from her work.” 

“If you say so…” I muttered as I followed the Ultimate Prosecutor out of the lab. 

We continued down that hall until we came to another barrier with Monokuma’s likeness painted thereon. Then we turned around and retraced our steps to the base of the stairs, at which point Lucille turned to me and said, “Hey, Gale, sorry, would you mind finishing the investigation without me again? I need to go check on Noise. I’m worried he might do something… rash.” 

“That’s probably a good idea,” I agreed. 

“Just let me know what you find at dinner,” she requested. “I can inspect it myself later when I return to examine the Ultimate Circus Performer's lab.” 

After parting ways, I continued down the third and final hallway until I came to a quaint, wooden door. This door featured a logo I recognized: a top hat over a masquerade mask whose left eye was doused in flames. This was the logo of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts. Unsure of what to expect, I slowly opened the door and entered to find a room resembling the lobby of a small café. Booths and tables lined the left wall while Ren stood behind a bar in an apron on the right. Ann and Yusuke sat on barstools close to him, and Morgana sat on the bar. “What the heck happened yesterday?” asked the talking cat. 

“There was another murder,” Yusuke explained. 

“Apparently, Shiro attacked Emiko, but then he was killed instead,” Ann sighed. 

“The Palace was a total mess,” Morgana complained. “At first the distortion only enclosed the first floor, but now it’s expanded to fill the whole ship. Security was on high alert the whole time too. I thought she had received a calling card!” 

“We’ve got company,” Ren noticed as I approached. 

“So… you guys can hear the cat too?” I asked hesitantly. 

“Yup,” Ren answered. 

“Morgana told us you entered Kari’s Palace the other night,” Ann added. “Did the Meta-Nav really appear on your e-Handbook?” 

“You mean this weird app?” I asked as I showed them the black-and-red eye on my handbook. 

“It’s called the Metaverse Navigator or Meta-Nav for short,” Morgana explained. “The Phantom Thieves used to have it on their phones. It’s what let them enter people’s Palaces to change their hearts.” 

“So…” I tried to understand, “these ‘Palaces’ are the products of someone’s cognitive distortions, and they’re part of the grander ‘Metaverse’ as a whole?” 

“That is essentially the case,” Yusuke confirmed. 

“And the Phantom Thieves used these Palaces to change people’s hearts?” I asked. 

“Yeah, by stealing the Treasure, the manifested core of the distortion in someone’s heart, from someone’s Palace, we cause them to have a change of heart, and their Palace collapses afterward,” Morgana clarified. 

“And you said the Phantom Thieves ‘used to’ have this app that sent them to the Metaverse?” I asked. “Did they disband because they lost it?” 

“We didn’t exactly lose it,” Ann answered. “It vanished along with the Metaverse.” 

“The Metaverse vanished?” I wondered. 

“Our final heist was destroying the Holy Grail, the Treasure of Mementos, which was the Palace of the general public. Mementos was the core of the Metaverse, and all of the other Palaces were just sort of branches of it, so when it crumbled, so did they,” Morgana revealed.

“Or so we thought…” Yusuke added. 

“I was created from the depths of Mementos,” Morgana continued, “so I suppose if I still exist, some pieces of the Metaverse must still remain. My theory is that Kari’s Palace is a product of the fragmented remains of Mementos.” 

“That’s pretty insane,” I gawked. “Why would they manifest around her distortions specifically?”

“I don’t know,” Morgana admitted, “but the resemblance is uncanny. Her Palace is a prison, just like Mementos, and the Shadows there are the same ones we found in Mementos’ depths.” 

“Shadows?” I inquired. 

“Those guards,” Ren clarified, “the ones that became monsters.” 

“I’m still not sure I follow,” I confessed. 

“You’ll just have to learn as we go,” Morgana proclaimed. 

“Wait. Are you expecting me to go back?” I questioned. 

“Since the rules prevent you from loaning us your e-Handbook, you are unfortunately our only doorway into the Metaverse,” Yusuke elaborated. 

“Kari’s Palace changed after the murder yesterday,” Morgana continued. “As much as I hate to say it, not even I can handle it by myself anymore. Changing her heart will be impossible unless we have a team.” 

“Then, the Phantom Thieves are trying to steal Kari’s heart?” I wondered. 

“Yeah,” Ren verified. 

“In this situation, it’s too dangerous to let her distortions go unchecked,” Ann agreed. “There’s no telling what she might do.” 

“She has been neglecting her health as well,” Yusuke added. “Triggering a change of heart would do as much good for her as it would for the rest of us.” 

“She has seemed a bit… overboard, lately,” I agreed. “Then,” I continued, “do all of you have those things—those ‘Personas’—too?” 

“Oh yeah,” Ren snickered. 

“Well, I gotta say. It’s weird saying it, but honestly, the chance to help out the Phantom Thieves is kind of a dream come true,” I chuckled awkwardly. “Plus, that Palace was freaky, sure, but they don’t call me the Ultimate Adventurer for nothing. Sure, I’m down. If it helps prevent any more murders, and if it helps Kari get her head on straight, I think it’s worth it.” 

“In that case, allow me to be the first to formally welcome you to the Phantom Thieves,” Yusuke announced. “We shall have to introduce you to the remaining members once we are free from this accursed ship.” 

“Welcome aboard!” Ann smiled as she shook my hand with a cheery smile. 

“Don’t make any plans tomorrow,” Morgana warned. “We should steal Kari’s Treasure as soon as possible. This new lab makes the perfect hideout, so we’ll meet up here after breakfast.” 

“Wait. Won’t it be kind of weird if we all vanish?” I asked. 

“This lab’s door has a traditional lock,” Yusuke explained. “If we lock the door behind us, it will seem as though we have just locked ourselves in this room for some time. While that may be suspicious, we at least have each other’s alibis that none of us is planning a murder.” 

“Are you sure we shouldn’t tell the others about this?” I wondered. 

“It’s too dangerous to take them into the Metaverse,” Ann argued, “and there’s no way they’d believe all of this otherwise. Besides, the only person who’d care what we’re doing is Kari, and once we change her heart, that shouldn’t matter anymore.” 

“Okay, yeah, that makes sense,” I conceded. 

“We should do our best to prepare beforehand,” Morgana advised. “I know our leader’s been stocking up on coffee.” 

“I shall secure some medicine from the infirmary,” Yusuke offered. 

“I’ve got a couple coins for the MonoMono Machine,” Ann shared. 

“Yeah, I have some too,” I noted. 

“Alright,” Morgana directed, “then Yusuke and our leader are in charge of medicine. Lady Ann, you and Gale see what you can get from the machine.” 

“Let’s do it.” Ren nodded as Morgana jumped into his shoulder bag and Yusuke followed him out of the Ultimate Phantom Thief's lab. Ann gave me a wide, reassuring smile, and the two of us went upstairs to the Ultimate Lucky Student's lab. 

After inserting the coins I’d collected into the MonoMono Machine, I obtained a pair of black and white pom-poms, an inhaler, a black-and-white megaphone, and a book about classical mythology. The machine afforded me a fifth and final “lucky spin” after I inserted my fourth coin, and I received a case containing a pair of identical revolvers. At first, I was horrified that the machine had deposited something as hazardous as firearms, but closer inspection revealed them to be mere replicas. “Those’ll be perfect!” Ann noted. 

“They’re fakes,” I corrected. 

“So what?” Ann retorted. “We’re going to a cognitive world. That means the weapons only have to look real for them to work.” 

“This whole ‘cognitive’ thing just keeps getting weirder,” I admitted as Ann piled several coins into the machine all at once. “What are you doing?” I asked. 

“You didn’t know?” Ann wondered. “Your chances of getting a unique prize go up if you use more coins.” 

“I thought the unique prizes were weapons,” I replied. “Won’t Kari confiscate those?” 

“Only if she knows about them,” Ann teased with a wink as she retrieved her prize from the machine. The reward for her gamble was an unreasonably long whip crafted from crimson leather. “This is perfect,” she smiled as she cracked the whip in her hands. 

“Just promise you won’t let anyone get killed with it,” I sighed. 

“I’ll leave it in our hideout if that makes you feel better,” Ann offered. “Our leader has the only key, so we can keep it locked up in there, and I’ll only use it when we go to the Metaverse.” 

“Alright, I guess that’s every bit as safe as Kari’s room,” I conceded. 

Ann and I split up when she left to return the whip to the Ultimate Phantom Thief's lab, and I continued to the restaurant for dinner. Despite yesterday’s trial, dinner proceeded as normal for the most part. Noise cussed out Haruki when the latter declared that his meal was undercooked and attempted to rectify the situation using a flamethrower before being dragged away by Charlotte, who promptly broke the device over her knee. Reiko expressed to Lucille her relief at discovering a fresh stock of contraceptives in the infirmary while Takamaru folded paper airplanes from sheets torn from Reiko’s notepad nearby. As promised, I summarized the layout of the Ultimate Phantom Thief's lab to Lucille and told her about its lock-and-key security. Ren, Ann, and Yusuke arrived just in time for dessert, much to Ann’s delight. 

As our meal came to a close, Kari and Miaya entered the restaurant. “Attention, everyone!” Kari called as she climbed on top of a nearby table. Miaya sat at the edge of the table by her feet. “I have an important announcement to make!” 

“What’s up?” Takamaru asked casually. 

“In the wake of yesterday’s incident,” Kari pontificated, “I’ve decided to make a few amendments to our school rules.” 

“Hold it. You just decided on your own?” Lucille inquired. 

“First of all, all restricted rooms may now only be entered in groups of three or more. Thus, in the future, there should be no question as to whether a single witness is an accomplice to someone’s murder,” Kari proclaimed. “Similarly, in the wake of today’s exploration, I’m adding the Ultimate Circus Performer's lab to the list of restricted rooms since it contains tools that could be used for a murder.” 

“Aww, my lab’s restricted too?” Haruki whined. 

“That doesn’t sound too unreasonable,” Charlotte agreed. 

“Furthermore,” Kari continued, “no one is permitted to enter the Ultimate Forensic Criminalist's lab without my expressed permission. The integrity of that lab must be maintained as a preventative measure that will allow any future murders to be solved with absolute certainty.” 

“That’s an awful stuck-up way to ask us to stay out of your lab,” Noise chided. 

“As an additional countermeasure,” Kari added, “use of the MonoMono Machine from this point forward is strictly prohibited. As such, the Ultimate Lucky Student's lab is condemned and is not to be entered under any circumstances. To enforce this, I have just sealed off this lab using Reiko’s green tape. Ignoring the tape and entering the lab will be interpreted as plotting a murder and addressed accordingly.” 

“Hey, who said you could use my tape?” Reiko questioned. 

“Doesn’t the MonoMono Machine have useful stuff in it, though?” Takamaru continued. “Like, you know, food?” 

“That does not outweigh the risk of obtaining weapons,” Kari argued. “Finally, I would like all of you to come with me. There’s something I need to show you.” 

Kari climbed down from the table and marched out of the restaurant. Miaya nodded at us politely before following the president. “I don’t like where this is going,” Noise grumbled. 

“Well, we should hear what she has to say, at least,” Lucille defended. 

Hesitantly, we followed the president to the dormitory, where she showed us to her door. After swiping her handbook over the door’s adjacent scanner, she opened the door to reveal a bedroom full to bursting with potentially dangerous contraband. Kitchen knives, power drills, juggling knives, rope, piano wire, crossbows, a medieval mace, fishhooks, chainsaws, Noise’s case of balanced knives, screwdrivers, a nail gun, hammers, dumbbells, iron skewers, sickles, nails, screws, scalpels, scissors, and anything else that could reasonably be considered a weapon—all of it was piled inside. “I’ve collected everything that would make an obvious weapon from throughout the vessel,” Kari explained. 

“Oh, so you’re the only 1 allowed to have weapons?” Noise chastised. 

“Um, how are you going to sleep in there?” Charlotte wondered.

“I’m not,” Kari answered as she threw her e-Handbook into the room and closed the door behind it. 

“Hey!” Haruki shouted as Kari glared forward at all of us. “My chainsaws!”

“Now there’s no way for anyone to access them,” Kari continued. 

“Yeah, sure, I’ll just cut vegetables with the _spoons_ ,” Ren sighed. 

“Miaya has already agreed to let me sleep in her room from now on,” Kari clarified. “I’ve moved my mattress and bedspread accordingly. More importantly, since there will be no future killings to open new areas, and since the MonoMono Machine is now off-limits, there is now no way for a potential killer to obtain a weapon.” 

“Hold it!” Lucille objected. “We were going to use some of that for fishing!” 

“At the rate the killings have been occurring,” Kari retorted, “we’d all have killed each other long before we ran out of food. Preventing future murders is now my first and only priority.” 

“What about, I don’t know, _escaping_?” Takamaru argued. 

“We stand no chance of leaving if we can’t coexist without fear of being killed by one another,” Kari rebutted. “Trust will be paramount from this point forward, so I ask that all of you put your trust in my decisions.” 

“Okay, bitch, maybe 0 people told you, but trust is a street that goes 2 ways!” Noise shouted. 

“Unless you were planning on murdering someone, there’s no reason for you to be upset with my making it more difficult to do so,” Kari deadpanned back. “That brings me to my final point. I’m going to need all of your fingerprints.” Miaya passed the president a binder, and Kari opened it to reveal a page containing pictures of every student aboard the _S.S. Titanokuma-A_. The pictures of Hifumi, Kagami, Shiro, and Emiko were each covered with a red X, and every picture had an empty white rectangle printed next to it. Miaya’s and Kari’s pictures had fingerprints stamped in their adjacent rectangles in black ink. “Shiro and Kagami may have worn gloves, but we would have reached the truth of the last case much more quickly if we had been able to identify Emiko’s fingerprints on the screwdriver,” Kari explained. 

“My, you’re practically begging the next killer to step up their game,” Haruki chuckled. 

“Fine,” Lucille conceded, “if this is what it takes for you to get it through your head that none of us is going to kill anyone, I’ll do it.” The Ultimate Prosecutor stepped forward. Miaya held out a small sponge that had been dipped in black ink. Lucille pressed her thumb on the sponge and then stamped her thumbprint on the binder. 

“If you have nothing to hide, you have no reason to object,” Kari asserted as the rest of us stood motionless. 

“Alright, have it your way, Pres,” Noise seethed as he swaggered forward and pressed his thumb on the sponge. “I told you once, and I’ll tell you again: I ain’t got shit to hide.” Noise stamped his thumbprint and then stormed off. 

“Well, at the very least, the next killer will have to get creative,” Haruki giggled. “Alright, sure, I embrace the challenge!” Haruki stamped his thumbprint next. One after another, Kari moved in front of us and collected each of our thumbprints. 

She approached Ren last, who held a long staring contest with the president. “Is something wrong?” Kari asked. 

“I don’t enjoy being treated like a criminal,” Ren answered before finally stamping his thumb without breaking eye contact. 

“If you aren’t a criminal, you have nothing to fear,” Kari assured him before leaving with the binder. “Let’s go, Miaya.” The Ultimate Therapist nodded silently before accompanying the president down the hall. 

“This has clearly gotten out of hand,” Yusuke remarked as the remaining students went their separate ways. 

“She’s going down,” I heard Ann mutter under her breath. 

I didn’t sleep well that night. After Kari’s show of determination, I found myself staring down the gold katana I had won from the MonoMono Machine several days ago. I was certain she would have confiscated it if she’d known about it. There was also Ann’s whip. _There could be other weapons the others have kept hidden from her too. Kari was thorough, but will her actions really prevent any future killings? If Haruki was right, they'll just make us uneasy and force the next killer to get creative. Wait. What am I thinking? Why would there be a “next” killer? This has got to be the end, right? Shiro caught us by surprise, but would anyone else here really try to kill someone?_

“Mm, ahem, this is your captain speaking,” Monokuma repeated. “It is now 10 p.m. As such, it is officially **nighttime**. Soon the doors to the kitchen will be locked, and entry at that point is strictly prohibited. Okay then… sweet dreams, everyone! Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite…” 

Our monochromatic captor’s morning announcement repeated the next day as well. Rising from bed, I took the time to shower, freshen up, and dress myself before walking to the restaurant for breakfast. Aside from Kari, everyone was accounted for. “Aha!” Haruki exclaimed as I entered the room, “I told you he’d arrive if we started the announcement! He always seems to show up just as things get interesting.” 

“What’s getting announced this time?” I asked. “Is Kari restricting our meals or something?” 

“ _Au contraire, mon ami_ !” Haruki corrected. “This announcement is the sort that will surely fill your heart with the most joyous of joys! I intend to show you something _très magnifique_!” 

“Is it a seven-layered cake?” Ann asked excitedly. 

“Is it an airplane?” Takamaru inquired. 

“Is it an escape route?” Lucille wondered. 

“Is it a sense of purpose?” Yusuke queried. 

“Is it the value of friendship?” Usami questioned on Miaya’s behalf. 

“Is it your mom?” Noise chided. 

“Is it a sense of humor?” Ren deadpanned. 

“Better!” Haruki corrected. “It’s a _performance_!” 

Charlotte lifted Haruki into the air to punctuate his grand announcement, and Reiko simultaneously fired confetti from a handheld cannon for emphasis. The crowd, however, simply answered with silence. After a long moment, Miaya typed something into her handbook, and she showed us a picture of Usami surrounded by crickets, whose quiet chirping added insult to injury. 

“U-Um, Haruki…” Charlotte whispered as she held the Ultimate Class Clown aloft. 

“Shush, darling, they love us,” Haruki assured her. 

“Alright, I hate to piss on your parade, but if no 1 else is sayin’ it, I will,” Noise broke the silence. “Last time someone suggested a party, they were plannin’ a fuckin’ murder.” 

“ _Le_ gasp!” Haruki exclaimed as he held his hand over his heart. “Do _mon_ classmates truly think I would attempt such a grotesque thing?” 

“Yes,” Takamaru answered. 

“Yep,” Ann agreed. 

“Indeed,” Yusuke added. 

“Almost certainly,” Lucille affirmed. 

“You left a banana peel next to 14 shish kabobs stabbed into the floor outside my dorm room yesterday,” Noise complained. “There was even a sticky note that said, ‘Lol ur dumb face here -> XD ;P <3 – Haru-kun!’” 

“Canst thou not taketh a joke?” Haruki protested as he gestured dramatically skyward. 

“Hang on. Is he French or English?” I wondered. 

“Just ignore him,” Lucille sighed. 

“Oh, I get it. He joked about stabbing your face because you have piercings,” Takamaru chuckled. 

“The performance was actually my idea,” Reiko chimed in. “I know Pres is trying to help, but her behavior isn’t helping morale, and, frankly, we’re going to need energy and a sense of unity if we want to escape.” 

“Since the pool party was a wash, pun intended, we need to prove to ourselves and to Kari that we’re capable of doing something fun and cooperating as a group!” Haruki agreed with a dramatic pose. 

“Plus, this might be the one chance for me to use my talent to help everyone,” Charlotte mumbled. 

“Not to be the voice of reason, but shouldn’t we put that energy into, you know, escaping?” Lucille wondered. 

“Talk about escape all you want, but we haven’t found any clues on how to get off this boat or where in the hell we are,” Noise groaned. 

“What’s most likely is that this boat itself is the only way back to shore,” Reiko explained. 

“Then we would need to wrest control of the vessel from Monokuma in order to return home,” Yusuke inferred. 

“Can we really stand up to Monokuma?” Ann asked. “You saw what he did when Kudo-sensei defied him.” 

“Defeating Monokuma would mean uncovering the mastermind, disabling any traps like the one used to kill Kudo-sensei, and defusing the ship’s on-board explosives,” Lucille reasoned. “That’s a pretty tall order.” 

“I think if we work together as a group, we can find a way!” Usami cheered on Miaya’s behalf. 

“That’s exactly why we need to restore our morale and trust in one another,” Reiko justified. “This isn’t something we can accomplish if we’re paranoid.” 

“I’m down,” I agreed. “I think this sounds like fun.” 

“Alright,” Lucille sighed, “I expect you to put this same energy into escaping, though.” 

“Of course, _mon amour_!” Haruki promised. 

“I’ll try to get Kari to come,” Miaya offered vicariously through her avatar. 

“Just don’t let the clown try anything fishy,” Noise grumbled. 

“We’ll keep an eye on him,” Charlotte promised. “The Ultimate Circus Performer's lab is one of the restricted areas, after all.” 

“It’s settled then!” Haruki proclaimed as he jumped down from Charlotte’s hands onto the table. “Come one, come all, to the Ultimate Thespian's lab, the night after tomorrow, for the performance of a lifetime!” 

After breakfast, I grabbed the model handguns from my room before rendezvousing at the Ultimate Phantom Thief's lab. I entered the lab to find Ren, Ann, Yusuke, and Morgana holding a meeting at one of the booths. “Glad you could join us,” Morgana snickered, “you ready to get started?” 

“I was unable to secure any sufficient weaponry,” Yusuke admitted, “but I believe my Persona will more than suffice for a Palace such as this.” 

“I should be just fine with my whip,” Ann said with a smile. 

Ren produced a double-edged knife from the inside of his jacket and smiled devilishly. 

“Ann said these would be useful,” I added as I placed the model revolvers on the table of the booth. “I was thinking of keeping one for myself.” 

“The other should go to our leader then,” Morgana determined, and the others nodded in agreement. Ren took one of the revolvers in his hand and experimentally pointed it in several directions. 

“Anything I should know before we get started?” I asked. 

“The Palace is ruled by Kari’s Shadow,” Morgana warned, “which is a sort of twisted form of herself. The other Shadows and Kari’s cognitions of everyone are inconsequential, but don’t kill Kari’s Shadow. It’s tied to a deep part of her psyche. Killing someone’s Shadow can have any number of consequences. In a worst case, she could experience a complete mental shutdown.” 

“Just follow our lead for everything else,” Ann smirked. 

Ren walked over to the door of the lab and locked it from within. Unlike the other doors with handbook scanners, this one featured a more traditional lock connected to the doorknob. “You guys ready?” Ren asked. 

“You bet!” Ann affirmed. 

“It certainly has been a while,” Yusuke mused, “but that makes me anticipate this all the more.” 

Taking my e-Handbook in hand, I opened the Meta-Nav and pressed the eye at the center of the emerging screen. Again, my reality dissolved around me like a fiery film covering another world just beyond my sight. My clothes changed to the western wear I had acquired after awakening to my Persona, and the others changed around me as well. Morgana assumed his bipedal, cartoonish form from our encounter the other night. Ann’s clothes changed to a bright red bodysuit complete with a tail, a feline mask, and darker, thigh-high, high-heel boots. Yusuke’s outfit was replaced by a dark suit with a high collar as well as blue gloves; white, knee-high boots; a white-and-blue-striped bandana around his waist; a white, fox-like tail with red stripes; and a red-and-white mask resembling the face of a kitsune. Ren wore a long, black coat over black pants and a matching vest; his outfit was accentuated by dark brown boots with curled toes, bright red gloves, and a black-and-white masquerade mask. 

“Fits like a glove,” Ren remarked as he pulled on the edges of his sleeves. 

“Really? Mine’s a little tighter than I remember,” Ann complained. 

“That reminds me,” Yusuke started, “we have yet to decide on a codename for our guest.” 

“We have codenames?” I asked. “That’s pretty tight.” 

“I’m Mona,” Morgana explained. “Our leader is Joker. Lady Ann is Panther, and Yusuke is Fox.” 

“If we’re going by costumes, why don’t we call him Bandit?” Panther suggested. 

“I’m pretty sure my neighbor’s dog was named that,” I protested. 

“Perhaps Sheriff would be more fitting,” Fox wondered. 

“I’m breaking the rules, not enforcing them,” I argued. 

“Why not Outlaw then?” Mona asked. 

“That one’s not bad, but…” 

“Ranger,” Joker suggested. 

“Ooh, I like that one!” Panther agreed. 

“Huh, yeah, I think that one fits,” I agreed, “a suitable codename for the Ultimate Adventurer!” 

“Well then, Ranger, let’s get going,” Mona declared. “I’ve secured a route over halfway to the Treasure so far,” he bragged, “so for now, just follow me and lay low.” 

After moving out of the stony room, I crept behind the Phantom Thieves through a series of long, dim hallways. We snuck past more than a dozen Shadows dressed as prison guards. Mona's prior knowledge of the route made navigation a breeze until we came to what they called a “Safe Room,” a small area where the distortion of Kari’s heart was apparently weaker. The room would occasionally shimmer and look more like the laundry room by the dormitory. 

We took a breather in the Safe Room while Mona explained, “This is as far as I’ve gone. I could sense a number of powerful Shadows a little farther ahead, so I waited until we got the gang back together instead of trying to confront them by myself.” 

“You said this is over halfway to the Treasure?” I asked. 

“Yeah, I was closer, but the Treasure actually moved after the Palace changed the other day,” Mona answered. “Originally, I was hoping to avoid this path.” 

“Well, no choice but to break through,” Panther noted. 

“Agreed, let us return to our objective,” Fox agreed. 

After catching our breath, we left the Safe Room and stepped back out into the Palace’s winding, stone halls. At the end of the hallway, we came to a spiked, metal portcullis that blocked a threshold into a large, cubic room. Standing near the center of the room was another Shadow dressed as a guard, but this one was wearing a gold vest and glowing with a red aura. The guard patrolled over several grates in the chamber’s floor, and it would stop for a moment to stare down at each grate before continuing to the next. Another portcullis blocked a second threshold at the opposite end of the chamber. 

“We’ll need to force this gate open,” Mona explained. “The Treasure is past this room.” 

“I suppose there’s no way to be subtle about this, then,” Fox concluded. 

“Are you guys ready? That Shadow is stronger than normal,” Mona warned. 

“Bring it on,” Joker smirked. 

On Joker's command, Fox, Panther, and I squatted down and lifted the portcullis from below. The creaky barricade immediately alerted the golden guard to our presence. Joker and Mona ducked under the opening we had created, and each of us moved to the other side of the portcullis before dropping it, with a heavy thud, back to its original position. “Intruders!” the golden guard shouted. “The warden will tolerate no interlopers! You will be executed for your crimes!” 

The golden Shadow melted into bloody goo, and a cluster of four Shadows emerged from the resulting puddle. One of them was a thundering berserker like the two who had attacked Mona and me the other day. Two more were tall, slender humanoids dressed in black robes—each with a red, buzz-saw-like pattern at the center of its chest—that covered their whole bodies. Their only visible features were their heads, which looked like sickly, blue skulls from which sprouted wide, black mushroom caps. They each carried a two-handed, double-edged sword, and tall, green-and-purple mushrooms wriggled out of the ground around them. 

The central Shadow looked remarkably human. It had dark skin and a muscular figure decorated with white hair and red eyes. It wore thick, leather bangles around its wrists and ankles accented with fins, and its matching leather belt supported a long semitransparent skirt with an oceanic tint and scaly texture. From the front of its skirt hung a long, multicolored sash patterned like geometric stained glass, and beneath a pair of sashes it wore crossed over its torso was a white, skin-tight shirt that barely covered the top half of its chest. The Shadow carried a regal, scaly chalice with a red rim decorated with white studs. Finally, its most noticeable feature was a large, copper helm shaped like the head of a fish with two long, curved horns extending upward from just over the fish’s eyes. Two large fins, almost reminiscent of wings, fanned down from the back of the helm and fell just below the Shadow's midriff. 

As Joker examined the central Shadow, Mona warned, “Wind moves won’t deal damage!” Joker correspondingly signaled for me to move forward. “Mona, backing out!” the feline thief cried as he jumped backward, and I stepped forth to take his place on the front lines. 

“Okay, let’s go!” I cried. “Odysseus!” At my call, my Persona materialized behind me, and he pointed his ethereal, bronze rifle at the central foe. “Strike!” I shouted as he fired a round into the central Shadow, who recoiled under the blow but immediately regained its stance. 

“I am thou!” Yusuke called as he summoned his own Persona: a muscular, blue swordsman wearing splint mail pants; a knee-length, splint mail skirt; and pointed, gold sandals elevated on cylindrical platforms. The upper half of the avatar’s grimacing blue face was covered by a gold visor with torso-length horns that stretched upward from either side of the Persona’s face. From the back of the gold visor stretched a length of white fur that frizzed backward over his bare shoulders. Just below his visor’s gold chinstrap, a red-and-gold-patterned cape wrapped around the Persona’s neck and flared back from his shoulders. Black tattoos with assorted patterns resembling anything from _tomoe_ to treads decorated the Persona’s muscular upper body. The Persona’s sword was a black claymore crafted from two barbed blades intertwining into a double-helix, and the weapon’s oversized sheath rested on the back of the Persona’s waist. As the Persona stabbed his blade into the ground, blue energy swirled around Panther, Joker, Fox, and me, and I felt myself become faster than before. 

Panther stepped forward and called her Persona, “Let’s do this!” Panther's Persona was a tall, effeminate being wearing a blood-red bodysuit under a black iron dress consisting of a floor-length, pencil-thin skirt and a vicious breastplate with conical spikes protruding from the shoulders and breasts. In addition to the dress, the Persona wore a wide, knee-length cape that was pitch-black in the back and bright red on the inside; the cape also had a series of equidistant hooks tied to its tail. The creature’s face was covered by a black helm with four oddly colored-eyes: each eye had cyan sclera and yellow irises surrounding thin, catlike pupils. From the sides of the helm extended two symmetrical horns that curved upward and then inward like shadowy antlers. Near the ends of these antlers were two additional, larger eyes identical to those on the helm’s face that glared forward as if the antlers formed a disapproving unibrow. In each hand, the Persona carried a silver ring attached to a chain connected to the vicious, blue head of a bloodthirsty canine. Each head smiled ferociously through its blood-red fangs, and spiked collars illustrated their eagerness to attack. The Persona seemed to concentrate as a multicolored aura swirled around her body. 

 With our preparations complete, the Shadows staged their attack. One of the mushroom-headed Shadows raised its sword and seemed to heal the central Shadow while the other brought its great sword down toward Fox, who quickly summoned his Persona to deflect the blow and counterattack with a slash of his own. The hammer-wielding goliath brought down a bolt of lightning toward me from overhead, but my increased evasiveness allowed me to dodge to the side of the electric strike. The central Shadow waved its studded chalice forward, and a wave of blustering wind buffeted each of the Phantom Thieves. I held my arm in front of my face to withstand the attack. 

Joker armed his model handgun and tumbled sideways to evade the gale. As he moved, he unloaded six bullets from his revolver that tore through the central Shadow. The Shadow collapsed forward onto one knee, and then Joker turned his attention to the thundering hammer-wielder. “This enemy’s weak to psychokinesis!” Mona advised, and then Joker summoned his own Persona. 

“Chi You!” he called as an ethereal green monster materialized behind him. The creature had a relatively humanoid form, but it had a head like a bull with four blue eyes and jet-black horns. Of its six arms—three on either side—its bottom pair was crossed in front of its abdomen. In its middle pair, it held a broadsword in its right hand and a shield emblazoned with an image like a festive, Chinese mask in its left. For its top pair, it had a double-bladed axe in its right hand and a glaive with a tassel tied to the blade in its left. Four muscular, bovine legs knelt outward from beneath its plated, brown tunic, which was accented with fuzzy, pink edges. Chi You armed its weapons, and a wave of technicolored light swirled around the thundering warrior, who collapsed into black dust under the weight of some apparent mental strain. “Go ahead!” Joker called as he turned around and raised his hand. 

Panther stepped forward and accepted a high-five before affirming, “Okay!” and then rematerializing her own Persona. “Dance, Hecate!” she called as the effeminate Persona summoned a wave of hellish flames that engulfed the three remaining Shadows. The mushroom-headed swordsmen faded into dust under the intense heat, and then the Phantom Thieves surrounded the remaining Shadow. Following their lead, I moved in behind the Shadow while Joker stood in front of it, and Panther and Mona took up positions at its sides. “Don’t move!” Panther declared as Joker and I drew our revolvers and pointed them at the downed monster; Mona simultaneously drew a slingshot from seemingly nowhere and pointed it at the creature as well. 

“Too late for apologies!” Mona cried as he drew his scimitar and disappeared into a flurry of slashes and strikes. 

Joker and Panther similarly leapt into the fray with their respective knife and whip. After tearing through the Shadow from all angles, Panther landed, turned away from their foe, and posed victoriously with a peace sign while proclaiming, “A beautiful rose has thorns!” as the Shadow burst into a bloody mist behind her. 

After reveling in our victory for a moment, our attention was drawn behind us by the sound of the portcullis opening again. Through the threshold came a dozen guards, four of them golden like the one we had just defeated, and leading this intimidating company was the warden herself, the spitting image of Kari. Kari’s Shadow held her nose even higher than the original, and she wore a black, skin-tight dress. The front of the dress was laced down the middle from her waistline to her collarbone, and the top section of the lace was untied to emphasize her cleavage. The dress’s skirt barely reached her thighs, and a slit down the right side exposed even more of the fishnet leggings she wore beneath it. She wore black, six-inch heels and several accessories that accentuated her outlandish look. She wore bracelets and anklets shaped like handcuffs, and she carried a police baton that she impatiently tapped against her open palm. Rows of interwoven chains were tied around her waist like a belt while smaller, thin chains dangled from either side of her glasses. 

“I figured you’d show up eventually,” Kari’s Shadow scoffed. “Did you come to free your other selves?” 

“What’s that s’posed to mean?” Panther retorted. 

As if on cue, something reached out from the floor beneath me and grabbed my ankle. Startled, I looked down and saw myself—dressed in my normal clothes—reaching up through one of the grates in the floor. “Help us,” my cognitive self moaned. “The warden has uncovered our insidious plots and imprisoned us here.” 

“Help…” Ann’s voice groaned from a different grate. 

“Now we can never escape,” Yusuke’s voice lamented from a different one. 

“Let us out,” Ren’s voice called from yet another grate. 

“Our days are numbered,” Haruki’s voice chuckled from the final grate. 

_Is this what that guard meant about “special confinement”?_

“This is horrible,” Fox observed. 

“Do you really think we’re plotting murders?” Panther shouted as she stamped her foot. 

“Your presence here is proof of that,” Kari’s Shadow sneered as she adjusted her glasses. “Now you will be executed for your crimes, just like the others!” 

“Puhuhu, did someone say, ‘Executed’?” a familiar, high-pitched voice resonated throughout the room. 

The Phantom Thieves and I started glancing around for the source of the taunt, but the ursine headmaster was nowhere to be seen. The Shadows began frantically looking in all directions as well. Kari’s Shadow’s expression changed to one of panic, and the guards started muttering amongst themselves, “It’s the Executioner!” 

“Ma’am, w-we need to get out of here!” one of them begged. 

“He’ll punish all of us!” another screamed. 

“F-Fine!” Kari’s Shadow stuttered. “We’ll leave the prisoners to their judgment,” she asserted before storming out of the chamber while her entourage of Shadows fled in terror. 

“They appear to be afraid of Kari’s cognition of Monokuma,” Fox observed. 

“We shouldn’t stick around to figure out why,” Mona advised. “Let’s keep going!” 

I followed Joker and the others to the other side of the chamber, where a second portcullis blocked another threshold. This portcullis, however, covered a heavy, metal gate of equal size and shape. Furthermore, a barrier of shifting, geometric light covered the threshold in front of the portcullis. “You’re kidding me!” Mona complained. “There’s a barrier here?” 

“How do we get through?” I asked. 

“This barrier corresponds to a threshold in the real world that Kari believes to be impenetrable,” Fox explained. “To proceed shall require us to open that door in the real world to change Kari’s cognition that it cannot be opened.” 

“I wonder what door it is?” Panther questioned. 

“I see it,” Ren thought aloud before gesturing toward a small white sign hanging beside the portcullis. The sign was labeled “Miaya” and featured a pixelated depiction of the Ultimate Therapist. 

“It’s Miaya’s room,” I concluded. 

“I suppose that makes sense since the president has begun sleeping there,” Fox analyzed. 

“I’ll bet it was her own room before the Treasure moved,” Panther guessed. 

“The Treasure is just past this door,” Mona assured us. “If we can get into Miaya’s room in the real world, we’ll have secured our route.” 

“That was fast,” I marveled. 

“Well, remember I did most of the work for you this time,” Mona bragged. “Anyway, we can’t do anything else until we open this door, and we shouldn’t stick around until that ‘Executioner’ or whatever shows up.” 

“Let us return for the day then,” Fox suggested. 

Following Joker’s lead, we retraced our steps back to the nearby Safe Room, and from there, we followed Mona’s secured route back to our point of entry. Under Mona’s instruction, I reopened the Meta-Nav on my e-Handbook and pressed its center to return to the real world. The handbook repeated, “Returning to real world. Thank you for your hard work,” in its soft, synthetic voice, and the stony Palace around us was steadily replaced by the familiar setting of the Ultimate Phantom Thief's lab. 

For some reason, after returning to the real world, I felt inexplicably lethargic. My clothes had returned to normal, and my revolver was just a model again. Before I had a chance to reorient myself, however, my ears were assaulted by a furious pounding on the door to the lab. “Open the goddamn door!” Kari’s voice demanded from the hall outside. 

“Oh, that’s not good,” Ann observed. 

“Hide the weapons,” Ren ordered as he slid his model revolver underneath one of the booths. Ann stashed her whip behind the bar, and I hid my revolver next to Ren’s. 

“If we let her in, she’ll find the weapons for sure!” Morgana warned as he hopped into Ren’s handbag 

“I know,” Ren acknowledged as he zipped his bag most of the way closed. 

The Phantom Thieves and I gathered around the door to the lab. “Awaiting orders,” Yusuke said calmly as he looked to Ren. 

“On my mark…” Ren said lowly as he gathered his composure. “Go!” Ren exclaimed as he quickly opened the door. Ann, Yusuke, and I immediately barreled out of the lab as Kari recoiled away from the door. Ren immediately shut and locked the door behind himself as he spun out of the room. Charlotte, Miaya, Lucille, and Haruki were also gathered outside the door. Charlotte and Miaya were fidgeting nervously behind the president. Lucille leaned against the wall with her arms crossed disapprovingly. Haruki peered curiously around Charlotte and sported a smirk resembling that of a child whose older sibling was about to be scolded by their parents. 

“Where were you?” Kari demanded to know. 

“My lab,” Ren answered plainly. 

“You disappeared from the map,” Kari retorted. 

“Creepy,” Ren replied. 

“We thought you were dead!” Lucille scolded. 

Ren looked over himself from head to toe. “I don’t feel dead.” 

“You’re pretty smart when you decide to speak up,” Kari bit. 

“I get that a lot,” Ren responded. 

“So, why’d you lock the door?” the president continued. 

“Privacy,” was Ren’s answer. 

“Give me the key,” Kari demanded as she outstretched her hand. 

“I don’t think I will,” Ren replied. 

“Quit fucking with me!” Kari screamed. “If there’s something in that lab that allows you to hide from the map, we need to know about it! That’s a danger to our security!” 

The Phantom Thieves and I remained silent. “U-Um, Kari, you’re being a little—” Charlotte interjected. 

Kari sighed and took a moment to regain her composure. “There’s no reason to be worried if you don’t have anything to hide,” Kari assured us. 

“And if I do?” Ren retorted. 

“Then we’ll have no choice but to assume you’re plotting a murder,” Kari answered. 

“Well, you know what they say about assuming,” Ren smirked. 

“Give me the key… before I take it from you.” Kari glared daggers at the Ultimate Phantom Thief as she moved her outstretched hand closer to him. 

Ren hesitated for a moment before producing a small key from his pocket. He slowly placed it in the palm of the Ultimate Student Council President. Kari pushed past him, and Ren casually began to walk past Charlotte and Miaya. Ann, Yusuke, and I hesitantly followed him, but my curiosity got the better of me, and I turned around when I heard Kari struggling with the door. After a few tries, she realized that, to her chagrin, the key did not fit into the lab’s lock. Ren had given her a fake. 

“Stop him!” Kari shouted as a catlike grin appeared over Ren’s face. 

Suddenly, the Phantom Thieves burst into full sprint and darted past Lucille and Haruki. Unsure of what else to do, I started after them, but Lucille quickly grabbed my wrist and held me back. As soon as they started running, Haruki darted after them like a dog chasing a car. “Oh no you don’t!” Within moments, he caught up and tackled Ren to the ground. 

“Search him,” Kari ordered. 

Haruki opened Ren’s handbag, but his excited grin was suddenly overtaken by a flurry of claws and fur as Morgana leapt out and attached himself to the clown’s painted face. “A cat?” Charlotte exclaimed in a confused voice. 

Haruki yowled in pain as Ren produced another key from his pocket and shouted, “Go!” as he threw the key forward. Morgana jumped off Haruki’s face and caught the key in his mouth before darting down the hallway with the object in tow. 

“Sorry, Pres, I don’t think I can keep up with a cat,” Haruki whined as he rubbed his scratched face. 

“It doesn’t appear on the map either,” Kari noticed as she looked at Miaya’s e-Handbook over the Ultimate Therapist’s shoulder. “Well played,” Kari admitted, “but don’t think you’ve won.” 

“What the hell were you doing in there?” Lucille whispered in my ear without releasing my arm. 

“Trust me,” I whispered back, but she seemed dissatisfied with that answer. 

“Charlotte, break the door down,” Kari commanded as she turned around and pointed at the Ultimate Phantom Thief's lab. 

“A-Are you sure about this?” Charlotte wondered. “What if there’s a reason they can’t show us what’s in there?” 

“Don’t you dare defy me!” Kari snapped. 

Charlotte looked genuinely afraid for a moment. “U-Uh, o-okay,” she stammered as she approached the door to the lab. 

After rolling her shoulders and cracking her neck, the Ultimate Cheerleader stretched her muscular legs as she prepared to kick the door open. Just as she released a staunch battle cry, however, Monokuma descended from the ceiling and stood between her and the door. “Hold it right there!” the monochromatic headmaster exclaimed. “What’s the point of putting locks on the doors if you kids just go barreling through them like barbarians?” 

“There’s no rule against forcing doors open,” Lucille argued. 

“Argh! Fine! Be that way! Check your handbooks!” Monokuma complained before hopping back upward and disappearing into the ceiling. 

“Lucy!” Kari shouted, “You knew he would—” 

“Force of habit,” Lucille interrupted with a smirk. 

“Thank you,” I whispered to the Ultimate Prosecutor under my breath. My e-Handbook buzzed in my pocket, and when I opened it with my free hand, I saw the following rule had been added:

17\. Attempting to break into locked rooms is strictly prohibited.

Ren pulled himself to his feet and brushed off his pants. He grinned down at the approaching president, who leered up at him in response. Morgana, Ann, and Yusuke were long gone.“We’ll settle this later,” Kari declared before passing the Ultimate Phantom Thief. “Until you decide to come clean, consider your lab to be strictly off-limits. Are we clear?” 

“Ultraviolet,” Ren replied. 

“Let’s go,” Kari called to her classmates. Charlotte and Miaya followed the president down the hall. 

“Wow! You were right, Pres! That was fun!” Haruki laughed as he caught up to them. 

“That’s enough for the day,” Ren sighed as he leaned against the wall and rolled his neck. 

“I expect you to explain this later,” Lucille insisted before letting go of my arm. 

“We’re not planning a murder,” I promised. “It’s just… complicated.” 

“I believe you,” Lucille assured me, “but you still worried me.” 

“Can we talk later?” I asked. “I’m still trying to make sense of everything myself.” 

“Sure,” Lucille agreed, “stay out of Ren’s lab in the meantime, though. The more you piss off Kari, the harder things get for the rest of us too. Miaya’s at the end of her wits just making sure she eats regularly. We need to calm her down, and this secrecy isn’t helping.” 

“Yeah, sorry,” I apologized. 

“That goes for you too,” Lucille called to Ren. 

“Yeah, I’ll work on it,” Ren told us as he walked away. 

Lucille and I parted ways, and I spent the remainder of the day resting in my room, leaving only briefly to eat dinner. I changed into my pajamas and fell asleep shortly after Monokuma’s nighttime announcement. I slept soundly through the night until the morning announcement: “Good morning, everyone! It is now 7 a.m., and nighttime is officially over. Time to rise and shine! Get ready to greet another beee-yutiful day!” 

Kari and Miaya were absent from breakfast again, but I was honestly relieved. I wasn’t prepared to confront the president after yesterday. The Phantom Thieves ate their breakfast quietly, and Charlotte seemed quieter than usual while listening to Reiko recite plans for their upcoming show, but Haruki was the same as ever. “What else you packing in that bag of yours?” he asked Ren as he sat on the edge of the table next to the Ultimate Phantom Thief. 

“I already checked, and your sense of humor isn’t in there,” Ren retorted. 

“Hahaha! Good one!” Haruki chuckled. “Just don’t keep all the pussy for yourself, Four-Eyes!” 

Haruki’s loaded reference to Morgana prompted curious looks from Noise and Takamaru, but Lucille just sighed, “Please don’t validate that remark by asking him to clarify,” and the two kept their thoughts to themselves. 

“Ahem, attention, attention please! This is your captain speaking!” Monokuma’s voice sounded throughout the restaurant as a nearby monitor lit up to show his two-toned face. “All students, please report to the deck of the _S.S. Titanokuma-A_ immediately! All hands on deck! Emergency! Emergency!” 

“Fan-fuckin’-tastic…” Noise groaned. 

“Hey, that’s my line!” Takamaru objected. 

“You don’t think he’ll sink another boat?” Ann wondered aloud. 

“There are only two classes in our year, though,” Reiko observed. 

“Let’s just go,” Lucille advised. 

“Yes, it would still be unwise to defy him,” Yusuke contributed. 

“I hope it’s nothing as awful as last time,” Charlotte murmured. 

The ten of us emerged on the deck of the grand vessel. The ocean’s breeze was surprisingly refreshing after having been below deck for so long. After a minute or so, Kari and Miaya walked up the stairs from the first floor and joined us. Monokuma stood atop the aftcastle over the red doors leading to the trial grounds. “Thank you all for joining me on this lovely day!” Monokuma cheered. 

“Let me guess. You’re delivering the next motive,” Kari assumed. 

“Nope!” Monokuma corrected. “You’re un _bear_ ably wrong!” 

“I’m pretty sure you used that one already,” Takamaru chided. 

“I may or may not have blown the best puns on the first couple chapters,” Monokuma admitted. “Ursine antics aside, however, I’ve gathered you all here today to welcome a new student onto our lovely Killing School Cruise!” 

“A new student?” Charlotte wondered. 

“Now, I know what you’re thinking: ‘Mr. Monokuma, I’ve only just started to remember everyone’s names and personalities after we weeded out some of the less interesting ones. How am I supposed to keep track of this bloated cast if you just add more characters willy-nilly?’ Well, to that I say, ‘The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell!’ With those words of wisdom, allow me to welcome this Killing School Cruise’s seventeenth student, Hachise Kurotsuki!” Monokuma monologued. 

 The red doors to the trial room swung open, and from the threshold stepped a teenage girl with shoulder-length, brunette pigtails. She wore a white, short-sleeve button-down with purple stripes on its sleeves and collar and a matching purple skirt. She also wore a long, dark gray tie and a pair of black, knee-high socks under black and white tennis shoes. The lower half of her face was covered by a black respirator with black-and-yellow cartridges, and her timid blue eyes glanced from side to side. Her posture was awkward as she clearly was uncomfortable with being exhibited, and her clothes seemed slightly too large for her figure. “It’s nice to meet you…” she murmured through her mask. “I hope we can get along…” 

“Wait a minute,” Kari interrupted. “You’re from Class B.” 

“That’s right!” Monokuma cheered. “Hachise is the victor of Class B’s very own killing game! As a matter of fact, you might even call her the Ultimate Survivor!” 

“Hold on,” Yusuke continued. “That means that horrific display…” 

Noise moved forward and grabbed the timid girl by the collar of her shirt. “Then you’re the fuckin’ blackened who got all those students killed?” he growled into her face. 

Hachise’s body started shaking as she tried to avoid eye contact. “I-I-I didn’t mean to!” she stammered as tears started forming in her eyes. 

“Back off, Noise,” Reiko instructed as she pushed the Ultimate Mathematician away from the girl. “Monokuma killed those students, not her!” 

“However, the fact remains that if you were the blackened, you must have killed someone. Am I right?” Kari surmised. 

“We saw fifteen students aboard that exploding vessel,” Lucille recalled. “If there were sixteen students in the class, including you, whom did you kill?” 

“Th-Th-That’s…” Hachise wiped the tears from her face as she stuttered. 

“You’re going to have to tell us everything if you expect us to trust you,” Kari insisted. “We can’t tolerate the possibility of another murder aboard this ship.” 

Surrounded and cornered, Hachise’s shaking intensified. As she shortly began hyperventilating, she quickly pressed a button on her respirator. Then, filtered air was supplied through her mask, and she took a moment to catch her breath as tears streamed down her face. “She’s not ready to talk!” Usami asserted as Miaya moved protectively between Hachise and the others. “This must have been traumatic for her too. They were her classmates, after all. I’ll try talking to her in my lab. Please leave her alone until then.” 

“At the very least, we’ll need your fingerprint,” Kari sighed. The president opened a binder she was carrying, and she pointed to a place at the bottom of the page for Hachise to stamp her thumb. 

“No,” Hachise replied, “I won’t do it.” 

“What?” Kari seemed disbelieving at the newcomer’s defiance. 

“If I gave you my fingerprint, you could use it to frame me for a murder,” Hachise explained. “Everyone would believe you too since you’re the Ultimate Student Council President, and I’ve already been the blackened once before.” 

After a long silence, Kari adjusted her glasses and stormed off. “Fine, we’ll know if they’re yours anyway by process of elimination since I already have everyone else’s.” 

Everyone else seemed uncertain of how to respond. A moment later, Miaya took Hachise by the arm and escorted her below deck. “Charlotte, would you mind going with them?” Lucille requested. “I’m not certain it would be wise to leave her alone with Miaya for now.” 

“Um, I would,” Charlotte murmured, “b-but the show is tomorrow, and if I don’t practice now, then Haruki and Reiko won’t have enough people to use Reiko’s lab, and then…” 

“I’ll go,” Noise offered. “I’m not sure how she of all people managed to become the Ultimate Survivor, but I’d still bet I could handle things if push came to shove.” 

“Just don’t escalate anything,” Reiko scolded. 

“I ain’t about to start shit,” Noise defended. “I’ll just sit to the side and play cards or somethin’. I won’t even talk. I just don’t wanna leave Miaya alone with her.” 

With that, Noise went below deck after Miaya and Hachise. Ren and Yusuke approached me a moment later, and Ren asked me to go with them to the kitchen. Apparently, Reiko had asked Ann to help with their show earlier, so now the two of them needed a third student to accompany to them to the kitchen on account of the new rules regarding restricted areas. When I asked why they cared about restrictions at this point, they simply replied that they had experience with pretending to be model students. 

That afternoon, true to his word, Ren taught me more about making coffee, and I gave him the mythological book I had won from the MonoMono Machine. Yusuke had brought some of the supplies from his lab and was painting something nearby in the meantime. “Here, try holding the cup like this,” Ren explained as he corrected my posture. Startled by his sudden intrusion, I accidentally panicked and dropped the cup, which shattered onto the floor. The noise attracted the attention of Morgana, who had been licking his paw nearby. 

“Frick, I’m sorry,” I apologized. “I’m not usually so clumsy.” 

“It’s fine,” Ren assured me as he took a broom and dustpan from the corner and started to clean up the mess. 

I looked down at the fragmented mug, which had previously been so clean that it reflected my face perfectly. In its remains, my visage appeared fractured and distorted, and the eerie spectacle reminded me of something. “Hey, that reminds me,” I started. “Morgana, you said a person might undergo a mental shutdown if we destroyed their Shadow, right?” 

“Yeah,” Morgana explained, “there’s no telling what could happen, but that’s definitely a large possibility. It’s happened before.” 

“Well, that got me thinking,” I continued. “Kari said one of her old classmates was killed in a psychotic breakdown incident. Those psychotic breakdown and mental shutdown incidents happened around the same time as the Phantom Thieves became popular, and the news was saying they were the ones responsible, but that’s not true, is it? I mean, you specifically warned me _not_ to cause a mental shutdown.” 

“That wasn’t us,” Ren explained as he finished sweeping the mug’s remains. 

“It was a different Metaverse user,” Morgana clarified. “You remember that politician who was super popular last year, Masayoshi Shido?” 

“Yeah, he was arrested for perjury and a bunch of other charges, right?” I recalled. “He was an avid opponent of the Phantom Thieves too. Was he the one causing them?” 

“Not exactly,” Ren corrected with a sigh. 

“The Metaverse user was causing mental shutdowns and psychotic breakdowns on Shido’s behalf,” Morgana exposed. “He targeted us too, but he ultimately got taken down by a cognitive version of himself in Shido’s Palace.” 

“Who was he?” I asked. 

“Goro Akechi,” Ren answered, “the so-called Second Advent of the Detective Prince.”

“Hold on,” I paused. “Lucille told me about him. He was the Ultimate Detective, a student at Hope’s Peak. Is that why he went missing?” 

“Akechi attended Hope’s Peak?” Ren seemed bewildered by the notion. 

“Come to think of it,” Morgana pondered, “he never did tell us where he went to school, and he was definitely famous enough to be an Ultimate.” 

“Why would someone like that become a serial killer?” I asked. “Students at Hope’s Peak are set for life!” 

“Shido was Akechi’s father,” Ren explained. “Akechi wanted acknowledgement… and revenge.” 

“I’m not sure I get it,” I admitted, “but it seems pretty complicated.” 

“Sorry,” Morgana meowed, “Akechi may have been against us, but he was kind of our friend in a way, too. It’s still sort of a touchy subject.” 

“I’m sorry for prying then,” I apologized. “Let’s talk about something else. What’s the plan for getting into Miaya’s room?” 

“She’ll need to let us in,” Ren declared.

“That’s right. We can’t take her handbook, and that’s the only key,” Morgana yawned. “She’s busy with Hachise today, though, so we’ll have to pick up where we left off later.” 

“But, why would Miaya let us in her room?” I wondered. “She’s kind of under Kari’s thumb right now, and Kari doesn’t trust us as far as she can throw us.” 

“Simple,” Ren smirked. He set down a tray of three coffees in front of me. Two of them looked normal, but the one in the middle was decorated with foam in the shape of Usami’s face. “We get on her good side.” 

“Just don’t get carried away,” Morgana meowed at the Ultimate Phantom Thief. “Queen will kill you if you she finds out you got too friendly with someone while you were gone.” 

With a devilish smirk underneath his reflective glasses, Ren carried the tray out of the kitchen. Disallowed from staying in the room with just two of us, I ushered Yusuke from his artistic trance and followed him out of the kitchen as well. “Who’s Queen?” I asked the Ultimate Artist. 

“Not someone to be trifled with,” Yusuke answered as he followed his leader out of the restaurant. 

“Don’t worry,” Morgana assured me. “Our leader’s a lot nicer than he looks. I’m sure he won’t be too reckless.” With that, the monochromatic cat jumped into Ren’s bag and was carried away. 

After that, I killed time by myself until dinner, after which I was approached by Lucille, who suddenly pinned me against a wall as I turned around the dormitory hallway’s corner. “Whoa!” I exclaimed as the Ultimate Prosecutor glared up at me. 

“Let’s take a shower,” she deadpanned. 

“Beg pardon,” I murmured meekly before being dragged down to the second floor by my sleeve. “Um, hey! Wait! Lucille! What’s the big idea?” 

“Shut up,” she insisted as she pulled me through the pool room and swiped her e-Handbook over the scanner adjacent to the girls’ locker room. 

“Wait. Look. I’m flattered, but this is kind of sudden, and you just lost Shiro, and I mean—” I continued to stammer nonsensically as Lucille slammed the locker room’s door shut behind her. After giving it a couple wiggles to ensure its security, she stepped into one of the shower stalls and closed its door behind her. 

“Take off your clothes,” she ordered from within the stall as her top, skirt, socks, and shoes came flying out of the stall and landed on the floor. 

Hesitantly, I approached the door of the stall. “Lucy—I mean—Lucille, listen to me. I get you must be stressed. Honestly, I am too, but I’m still trying to sort through a bunch of emotional junk, and—”

My explanation was interrupted when Lucille opened the stall door, pulled me into the shower stall, and closed the door behind her. To my surprise, she was wearing her one-piece bathing suit. “We need to talk,” she sighed. “Take your clothes off, or they’ll get wet.” When I hesitated a moment longer, she continued, “Trust me.” 

“Turn around,” I muttered. 

After a long sigh, Lucille turned around and faced the wall of the stall. Nervously, I undressed myself and slid my clothes under the gap between the stall and the floor. “You done?” she asked without turning her gaze. 

“Yeah,” I replied. Still facing away from me, she turned on the shower. We waited under the running water for what felt like an eternity. “So, what’s the deal?” I asked. 

“Come closer,” she requested. “It’s a secret.” Cautiously, I moved a step closer to her, and she murmured something under her breath. 

“What was that?” I asked.

“If you can’t hear me, move closer,” she replied. With no small degree of diffidence, I moved just behind the Ultimate Prosecutor and held my chin just above her shoulder. “Monokuma can’t hear us,” she whispered. Suddenly, my eyes widened, and I looked sideways at her face. Without turning to face me, she continued, “The running water is loud enough to drown out our voices if we speak at a low enough volume, and the steam in this room fogs up the camera lens.” 

“Are you serious?” I whispered. 

“Fuck, you’re so big!” Lucille moaned. Startled, I jerked away from her and pressed my back to the opposite wall of the stall. “Get back here!” she bit. 

Even more nervous than before, I moved closer and rested my face next to hers. “What the hell was that about?” I asked in a low voice. 

“Monokuma will know we’re up to something if we’re too quiet,” she whispered. “Ooh, yes, that’s right. Slide it back in…” she whimpered. 

“This is too awkward,” I choked. 

“Just endure it,” she whispered. “There’s something I need to tell you, but I can’t have Monokuma knowing if I’m on the right track, or he’ll start dropping false leads to throw me off.” 

“What’s the big deal?” I asked. 

“Why do you think Shiro tried to murder Emiko?” she asked in a hushed tone. 

“I guess he wanted to get out,” I replied, “and Emiko was the only one who’d fall for that fake love note, right?” 

“What about Monokuma’s motive?” she continued. “Do you really think it was unrelated?” 

“You mean the spy?” I asked for clarification. 

“God, yes, baby! Right there!” Lucille cried. 

“I’ll take that as a yes,” I sighed under my breath. 

“Getting out isn’t a solid enough motivation for Shiro to kill,” Lucille explained. “I wasn’t sure, but Hachise proves it. I don’t think Monokuma really intends to let the blackened graduate. Shiro felt the same.” 

“Not to sound like Haruki,” I replied, “but what if Shiro only said that to disincentivize you or someone else from becoming the blackened before him?” 

“Think what you want,” Lucille retorted, “but I want to believe in Shiro. You want to believe him too, don’t you?” 

“Yeah…” I answered after a long moment, “I guess I do. I’ve been trying to believe in everyone this whole time.” 

“If Shiro wasn’t trying to escape, why would he kill someone?” Lucille prompted. “Consider that he knew doing so would probably make him the blackened and get him executed.” 

“Was… was he targeting the spy?” I wondered aloud. 

“Fuck, you’re so good at this!” Lucille moaned. 

Flinching a little, I continued, “Then, are you saying Shiro targeted Emiko because she was the spy?” 

“No, I don’t think Emiko was the spy,” Lucille corrected. “I was thinking about it, and I think what makes the most sense is that the spy is _someone who can’t be killed_.” 

“That’s a pretty bold claim,” I replied. 

“Think about it,” she continued. “The spy is in league with Monokuma. That means they chose to participate in the killing game. Therefore, either Monokuma is somehow threatening them with something worse than death, or they feel they are safe from harm even though one of us might try to kill them.” 

“Didn’t you say something like that before?” I asked. 

“Yeah,” she whispered, “but Monokuma said the spy is a player in this killing game just like the rest of us. I don’t think Monokuma wants to protect them, or else he wouldn’t out them as a motive like that. He would keep the spy a secret. Monokuma doesn’t care about the spy, though. He’s just using them as another tool to make the game more interesting.” 

“That makes sense and all,” I admitted, “but that assumes that there even is a spy.” 

“No, I think there is one,” Lucille asserted. “I believe in Kagami. One mastermind can’t possibly be observing all of us at all times, but Monokuma needs to in order to maintain the integrity of the game since a murder could happen at any time.”

“I’m not sure how much a spy would help with that,” I argued. “They can’t exactly keep an eye on the security cameras if they’re mingling with us.” 

“Maybe not,” Lucille acknowledged, “but Monokuma would still benefit from someone on the inside to help keep tabs on us and keep the killing game going.” 

“Say there is a spy,” I replied. “Why would Shiro think it was Emiko?” 

“That’s it, baby! I’m almost there!” Lucille cried. 

“Would you cut that out?” I whispered angrily. 

“If my line of thinking is correct, the spy is most likely someone who can’t be killed,” Lucille explained in a whisper. “Thinking that way, Emiko makes the most sense. Normally, her talent would make her the most difficult to kill out of all of us. Shiro’s death is evidence of that.” 

“If he knew the spy couldn’t be killed, why would he try to kill her?” I asked. 

“I’m not sure,” Lucille admitted. “Maybe he was desperate, or maybe he wanted to test his hypothesis. If, for example, Emiko killed him, and Monokuma had failed to execute her, that could have proved us right. She, the Ultimate Lucky Student, would genuinely be considered someone who can’t be killed. That would qualify her as the spy.” 

“Then, you’re saying Shiro attempted murder and got both Emiko and himself killed just to test his theory that she was immortal? I don’t see how that makes him any better,” I fumed quietly. 

“I’m not saying he was right, and I’m not saying my line of reasoning is correct either,” Lucille muttered; I noticed some tears forming on her face amidst the water from the shower as she continued, “but I want to believe what he did was for a reason.” After a long silence, she said, “Anyway, you don’t have to believe me, but at least think on it. There might still be something I’m missing, something you know that I don’t. If it wasn’t Emiko, I’m not sure how the spy could be unkillable, but if there is a spy, I’m almost certain that they are.” 

“Are we done, then?” I asked. 

“God, yes…” she moaned. “Fuck, I came so hard…” 

“Don’t turn around,” I instructed as I turned off the faucet and exited the stall. As I started to dry off, I noticed Lucille dutifully facing the stall’s wall and starting to shiver a bit. With a sigh, I passed her a clean towel, and I got dressed after drying myself off. “Alright, you’re good,” I told her. 

Lucille turned around, finished drying off, and redressed herself. “You’re a lot more prudent than I expected,” she chuckled. 

“Well, you’re the one who made things weird,” I huffed. 

Without warning, Lucille quickly pressed her body against mine and whispered in my ear, “It wouldn’t have killed you to unwind a little. You’ll go bald if you keep all that tension pent up.” 

“You could’ve told me to bring a swimsuit or a spare set of clothes or something if you weren’t trying anything,” I whispered back with a grimace. 

“Maybe I was,” she giggled as she passed me and started to leave the girls’ locker room. 

“Oh, wait. I almost forgot…” I started. “Do you want to come back to my room?” 

“That’s rather forward of you,” Lucille teased bluntly. 

“Not like that,” I sighed, “I won something I think you might like before Kari closed off the MonoMono Machine.”

“Uh-huh, I’m sure that’s all you have in mind,” Lucille sarcastically joked. 

After I ignored her taunt, I followed her to the dormitory. Insisting she wait in the hallway, I briefly stepped into my room and retrieved the megaphone. She took the device and looked it over. “You sure know how to spoil a girl,” she chuckled. I couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic. Either way, she accepted the gift with a smile and returned to her room. 

“Man,” I sighed to myself, “I sure hope that curse of hers isn’t real.” 

As I left the room, I took out my e-Handbook and checked the time: 7:58, still some time before nighttime. Habitually, I checked my handbook’s map. Lucille was, of course, in her dorm room. Kari was alone in the Ultimate Forensic Criminalist's lab. Miaya, Noise, and Hachise were all still in the Ultimate Therapist's lab. Ren and Takamaru were in the restaurant. Yusuke was alone in the Ultimate Artist's lab. Haruki, Reiko, Charlotte, and Ann were all in the Ultimate Thespian's lab. 

Curious to see how their show was progressing, I made my way down the hall and knocked on the door to Reiko’s lab. When I didn’t get a response, I opened the door and peered inside. Within, I saw Haruki and Charlotte had taken to the stage. Ann was exhaustedly fanning herself in the front row of the audience’s seating with a folded piece of paper. Reiko was sitting in the balcony behind the light controller. Haruki was dressed even more oddly than usual. He had a baggy vest and pants covered from top to bottom in rows of silver sequins. “Let’s hear it!” Charlotte cheered as she threw the Ultimate Class Clown skyward. 

Just as Haruki reached the zenith of his flight, Reiko cut off all the lights in the lab and shined a variety of multicolored lights directly on him from all directions. The Ultimate Circus Performer twirled dramatically in midair, and the lights twisted and danced around his body and the lab alike. Less than a moment later, Haruki landed in Charlotte’s arms, and the lights returned to normal. 

Reiko and Haruki cheered loudly as Reiko rushed down from the balcony toward the stage. Charlotte started tapping her feet on the ground one after another and nearly crushed Haruki in a bearhug as she giddily turned in circles. When Haruki seemed to be approaching unconsciousness, the Ultimate Cheerleader set him down, and Reiko ran onto the stage. With an excited cheer, the three performers shared a triangle of high-fives, but Haruki’s hand seemed to fly off his arm when it was struck by Charlotte’s muscular palm. Charlotte screamed as fake blood spilled from Haruki’s arm, but the prankster revealed his actual hand from safely within his sleeve a moment later. 

“Jerk!” Reiko scolded as she tried in vain to slap Haruki across the cheek a few times, but Haruki ducked and dodged around her without dropping his satisfied grin for a moment. Reiko sighed after realizing it was futile. As she turned to apologize to the Ultimate Cheerleader on Haruki’s behalf, she was surprised to find the effeminate goliath giggling hysterically at her own gullibility. 

Reiko smiled with relief, but then a small trap door opened beneath her, and an industrial fan beneath the stage blew the skirt of her dress upward. She panicked for a moment and pushed her dress down before turning around to see Haruki whistling inattentively while twirling a remote control in his hands. Once Haruki had her attention, the mischief-maker darted down from the stage and started cartwheeling over the seats to outpace his long-legged pursuer. The ginger prankster laughed gleefully as Reiko screamed obscenities at him. 

Having gone this long unnoticed, I decided to leave the group be and return to my dorm room for the night. As I lay in bed following Monokuma’s nighttime announcement, I found myself having trouble sleeping as I considered Lucille’s deductions. _Is one of us really a spy?_ The question turned itself over in my head as I considered a few possibilities. _Kari has literally been spying us, and she doesn’t seem concerned with helping us escape anymore, but what she’s doing is meant to prevent murders, not encourage them, and if she were working with Monokuma, wouldn’t she be more discreet?_ Unable to say for certain, I kept thinking. _Kari doesn’t seem “unkillable” like Lucille suggested the spy would be. Is it even possible for someone to be unkillable? There’s Hachise. She’s a former blackened and the Ultimate Survivor, so she’s definitely suspicious, and she might be considered unkillable, but Monokuma said one of us was the spy before she was aboard the ship._

These questions kept me up for a while until I finally drifted into sleep. Then, I was rudely awakened by Monokuma’s morning announcement: “Good morning, everyone! It is now 7 a.m., and nighttime is officially over. Time to rise and shine! Get ready to greet another beee-yutiful day!” 

With a groan, I pulled myself out of bed, got ready, and trudged over to the restaurant for breakfast. “Tonight’s the night, ladies and gents!” Haruki proclaimed as I stepped into the dining room. “The show starts at seven o’clock sharp! Be there or be snared—by a gripping regret that will haunt you for the rest of your natural life!” 

“You need to work on your marketing,” Takamaru chided. 

“You’re coming,” Reiko asserted as she glared down at her bearded boyfriend. 

“I for one am looking forward to the spectacle,” Yusuke shared. “Perhaps this is just the inspiration I need to finish my current piece.” 

“Um, y-you don’t have to show everyone that piece after you finish it, do you?” Ann stammered. 

“Whatever, I could use the change of pace around here,” Noise groaned. “Everything’s been such a fuckin’ drag. The pres ain’t even tryin’ to escape or find food anymore.” 

“We agreed to give it our all after the show!” Charlotte cheered. “I’ll make sure even Kari comes out and helps us!” 

“Speaking of which, has anyone seen her, or has she just been in her lab nonstop?” I asked. 

“As far as I know, she hasn’t even been leaving for meals,” Lucille shared. “I don’t know how she’s avoiding the rule about sleeping in class.” 

“Sounds worrisome…” Ren commented. 

“Well, it’s time to let all those worrisome worries wash away when we wipe those weary woes from your minds with tonight’s grand performance!” Haruki circled back to his announcement as he stood atop a table. 

“Everyone’s coming, Haruki,” Lucille sighed. “Now please get your shoelaces out of my soup.” 

“Good morning, everyone!” a synthetic voice called as Miaya entered the restaurant. The Ultimate Therapist entered holding the hand of Hachise Kurotsuki, the Ultimate Survivor. 

The room fell silent for a moment before Lucille said, “Good morning, Miaya.” 

“How are you feeling?” Charlotte asked Hachise as she approached the pair of timid girls. 

“I’m better today,” Hachise answered with what I assumed to be a smile under her respirator. “Miaya really is the Ultimate Therapist.” 

“Hey, what’s up with her?” I whispered to Lucille. “She was in your year at Hope’s Peak, right? What’s she like?” 

“I’m not sure,” Lucille admitted under her breath. “I knew her by name and face, but she never really had friends at school. I’m honestly not even sure what her original talent was. It never came up.” 

“What about midterms?” I whispered back. 

“I don’t know,” Lucille continued. “She was always tested in private. They said it was because of her medical condition. Apparently, it’s pretty serious.” 

“I want to introduce myself more properly,” Hachise said as she stepped forward. “My name is Hachise Kurotsuki. It’s a pleasure to formally meet you all. I hope we get along.” 

“I’m Charlotte Kinoshita,” Charlotte introduced herself as she shook the girl’s hand. “Of course, you’ve already met Miaya and Usami.” 

“I’m Haruki Haruharu!” the Ultimate Class Clown declared as he leapt off the table and landed next to Charlotte. “My friends call me Haruki, but you can call me anytime.” Haruki genuflected and kissed Hachise’s hand for effect before Reiko kicked him out of the way. 

“I’m Reiko Izanami, the Ultimate Thespian,” Reiko introduced herself politely. 

“I love your dress,” Hachise admired as she examined the tall actress from top to bottom. 

“Hey, I don’t know which team you play for, but she’s out of bounds!” Takamaru cried from across the room.

“That guy over there is my boyfriend, Takamaru Kazeryu. Don’t let him get to you,” Reiko chuckled. 

“Oh, you’re the Ultimate Pilot, right?” Hachise gawked as she approached Takamaru, who was kicking back in his chair and staring listlessly at the ceiling. “Can I get your opinion on something? Do you think the Kawanishi H8K or the Yokosuka E14Y was the better reconnaissance plane? I mean, the Kawanishi was a longer-range patrol craft, but the Yokosuka was the only Japanese aircraft to ever outfly New Zealand in World War II!” Takamaru looked at the newcomer with starstruck eyes while Reiko’s face twitched slowly behind her. 

“As a matter of fact—” Takamaru started before Reiko covered his mouth, chuckled awkwardly, and dragged him away from Hachise, chair and all. 

“Anyway, I’m Lucille Wridge,” Lucille interjected while Hachise gave Reiko and Takamaru a confused look. “I’ve seen you around, but it’s nice to formally meet you.” 

“Likewise!” Hachise replied as she shook Lucille’s hand. 

“I hope you don’t mind, but I’d still like to ask you some questions about your class’s killing game,” Lucille continued. 

“No, it’s alright,” Hachise agreed. “I need to get up to speed on what’s happening over here too. From the look of things, it seems your class is missing some people. There are some students I don’t recognize, too.” Hachise ended her sentence by glancing over toward the Phantom Thieves and me. 

“We’re transfer students,” I explained. “My name’s Gale Rovere. I’m called the Ultimate Adventurer, but I don’t think it’s as cool as it sounds.” 

“My name is Yusuke Kitagawa,” Yusuke added. “I am called the Ultimate Artist, and every day I strive to be worthier of the title than I was the day before.” 

“Oh my gosh!” Hachise exclaimed through her respirator. “You’re the one who made that award-winning painting, _Desire and Hope_ , right? That piece was incredible!” 

“Well, I am relieved to see you are not lacking in taste,” Yusuke chuckled. 

“I’m Ann Takamaki,” Ann said as she shook Hachise’s hand. “Don’t let these weirdos freak you out. Feel free to come to me if you ever need any girl talk.” 

“Whoa, no way, you’re that model from Vague, right?” Hachise admired. 

“Yeah, that’s me!” Ann boasted through a wide grin. 

“My family wasn’t able to afford them, but I always tried to keep up with the latest fashions!” Hachise replied. “It’s a shame all the clothes here look the same.” 

“Well, the Ultimate Thespian's lab has all kinds of outfits!” Ann assured her. “I’m sure we can find you something cuter to wear sometime if you’d like.” 

“I’d like that,” Hachise agreed. “And you are…?” she asked as she approached Ren.

“Ren Amamiya,” Ren said, “the Ultimate Phantom Thief of Hearts.” 

“No… freakin’… way…” Hachise pressed a button on her respirator and took a moment to regulate her breathing. “You’re _the_ Phantom Thief! Holy shit, no way, holy shit, I am, like, the _biggest_ Phangirl. It’s thanks to you guys that that creep Shido didn’t get elected prime minister, right? Oh man, you guys took down Medjed too. You’re, like, _actual_ superheroes! I’m so… oh my gosh…” 

“Take it easy,” Ren chuckled, and Hachise caught her breath again. Miaya placed her hand on Hachise’s shoulder to encourage her as her breathing steadied. 

Miaya typed something into her handbook, and then Usami appeared on its screen. “Well, aren’t you going to introduce yourself?” the avatar asked Noise, who had been continuing his breakfast silently since Hachise’s entry. 

“Name’s Shoichi Noizu, but let Noise = what you call me. Get it wrong, and I’ll fuckin’ cut you,” Noise threatened through the last of his rice. 

“Oh, come on, Sho-chan! Don’t be that way!” Charlotte encouraged the Ultimate Mathematician with a firm pat on the back that almost made him choke. 

“How come Charlotte gets away with calling him that?” I whispered to Lucille. 

“Aside from Kudo-sensei, she’s the only person who’s ever beaten him in a fight,” Lucille explained. “There’s not much Noise can do to stop her from calling him that.” 

“I guess that’s not surprising,” I muttered. 

“Well, now that you’ve met everyone, let’s all eat breakfast together!” Usami cheered. 

“Um, actually…” Hachise started, “I don’t really like to eat in front of people…” 

“Oh, is it because of the, um, well…” Reiko trailed off. 

“Yeah, it’s my respirator,” Hachise admitted. “It’s okay. You can talk about it.” 

“Well, in that case, let’s make you something and get you back to your room!” Usami exclaimed excitedly on Miaya’s behalf. “I need to bring some to Kari too anyway!” 

“How is she even spying on us in there if she locked her handbook in her room?” Takamaru pondered aloud. 

“We copied the map software from her e-Handbook to the computer in her lab,” Usami explained as the pinkish avatar suddenly obtained glasses and a lab coat. “It still works like a charm!” 

Miaya and Hachise made plates for themselves and Kari, and then the pair exited the restaurant. “Well,” Haruki inquired, “what do you all think?” 

“Was she really the blackened?” Charlotte wondered. “She seems so sweet.” 

“She seemed awfully desperate to get on our good sides,” Lucille observed. 

“I mean, yeah, she knows none of us trusts her,” Reiko defended. 

“We don’t trust her cuz she’s a fuckin’ murderer,” Noise argued. “You saw what happened to that boat.” 

“Monokuma killed the students on the boat,” Yusuke reminded us. 

“If it’s anything like when Hifumi was killed, she probably had no idea there’d be a trial and that her classmates would be executed…” Ann continued. 

“We’ll find out for sure when I talk to her,” Lucille declared. 

“About that,” Takamaru interjected, “maybe somebody else should try talking to her.” 

“What do you mean by that?” Reiko asked. 

“Oh, you got a point. Lucille can be kind of a bitch,” Noise yawned. 

“Hey!” Lucille objected. 

“Can’t we just ask Miaya what they talked about yesterday?” Haruki asked. 

“You already know she’d never tell us anything,” Reiko answered. “It would breach her confidentiality as a therapist.” 

“Then perhaps Noise overheard something juicy!” Haruki suggested. 

“I wasn’t payin’ attention,” Noise coughed as he dislodged another wad of rice from his throat. 

“I can try talking to her,” I offered. “She’s probably as scared of us as we are of her. Her talent and status make her an obvious target for murder, so maybe she’ll open up more if we’re friendly. Then, Lucille can talk to her later and get some more info once she’s less wary.” 

With the group’s agreement, I finished my breakfast and checked the map on my e-Handbook. I found that Hachise was alone in a dorm room, the room at the end of the hall that had originally had Kudo-sensei’s name on it. _Wasn’t that room sealed off?_

When I approached the room, I found that the yellow tape had been removed—leaving peels in the paint similar to those caused by the green tape with which Reiko had sealed her lab. The sign picturing Kudo-sensei’s chibi likeness had been replaced with a sign that depicted a pixelated version of the Ultimate Survivor and was labeled, “Hachise.” 

 _I guess she had to sleep somewhere._ After dismissing any second thoughts, I stepped forward and rung the doorbell. There was a brief pause before the door opened slightly. Hachise peered up at me through the crack. “Hi Gale, can I help you?” she asked. 

“Hey, uh, do you mind if I come in?” I inquired. “No funny business, I promise.” 

“Oh, I know you’re not planning to kill me,” she assured me. “Kari is watching the map, right? She’d know you were alone with me in my room at my time of death. You wouldn’t stand a chance in the trial.” 

“Can I take that as a yes?” I wondered. 

“Sure thing!” she replied as she undid a door chain that was preventing the threshold from opening any farther. Once she opened the door all the way, I stepped inside. Her room was slightly larger but otherwise had the same layout and furnishings as the dorm rooms I had seen thus far. “I’m guessing you want to talk about how I ended up here,” she sighed into her respirator as she sat on the edge of her bed. 

“Well, yeah, that’s part of it,” I admitted, “but, like, we don’t really know each other at all either. I’ve at least had some days to get a grasp on everyone else, but you’re, well…” 

“I’m an unknown.” She seemed to smile under her respirator as she said it. “That’s fine. I’d like to get to know you better too!” 

“Well, I moved to Japan from America,” I explained, “but I was actually born in Italy. I’ve traveled all over the world. I think that’s why I was scouted as the Ultimate Adventurer.” 

“That’s really cool!” she enthused. “Your Japanese is really good for an Italo-American!” 

“Yeah, honestly, I wish I was the Ultimate Linguist,” I chuckled. 

“I guess it’s only fair I tell you about my talent then,” Hachise sighed again as she stared up at the ceiling. “Monokuma gave me the title of Ultimate Survivor because I won the last killing game.” 

“About that,” I interrupted, “in our killing game, Monokuma said we get to ‘graduate’ or leave the ship if we kill one of our classmates and then win the class trial. Was it the same for you?” 

“Let me be clear about something,” Hachise responded as she stood from her bed and approached me. 

“Um, Hachise…” my voice cracked a little as she moved into my personal space and held her fingernails to my neck and jawbone. 

“Monokuma is a liar,” Hachise breathed onto my exposed collarbone as she pressed her forehead to my chin. “There aren’t any rules to this killing game, not really. He just wants you to think there are. As long as you believe in the rules, you believe in Monokuma, and you’ll play the game. That’s how it works. That’s the mistake my classmates made. That’s why my victim was killed.” She held her ear to my chest, and after a long pause, she continued, “You’re not scared?”

“Well, you said yourself I couldn’t get away with murder in here,” I explained. “I think that goes for you too.”

“I like you,” Hachise giggled as she backed away. 

“You might act weird, but I’m pretty sure you’re just testing me,” I chuckled. “It’s my turn to test you then. I have to know: who was it? We saw fifteen other students on that mast, so who did you kill?” 

“I…” Hachise started before looking down. I heard her click her lips under her respirator before she continued, “I killed my sensei…” 

A long silence followed. I was unsure of how to respond now. From my perspective, I couldn’t imagine any of my classmates killing Kudo-sensei. Not only did they all respect him, I found it hard to believe any of them could even if they tried. In my stupor, I only managed a single word: “How?”

“She let me…” Hachise elaborated. “This boat has an infirmary. There are plenty of pharmaceuticals, even the ones I need for my asthma, but there was nothing like that on ours, at least not that we could reach. I… I wouldn’t have lasted long without my medication… not long enough for everyone to escape or for help to come. Fujikawa-sensei helped me plan her murder… She sacrificed herself because she wanted me to escape first so I could survive… I was supposed to contact Hope’s Peak for help once I was free… She didn’t—we didn’t know about the class trial, about the collective punishment for guessing the blackened wrong… but at that point, I was—I was so scared of dying. I let them. I let them make the wrong choice when they couldn’t figure it out. I let them because I wasn’t as strong as Fujikawa-sensei… I was too afraid to die for someone else…” 

By the time she finished her story, Hachise’s eyes had swelled with tears. _This… is nowhere near what I had expected…_ Without thinking, I reached forward and held her. It was all I could do. She hugged me back and cried into my shoulder for a while until we heard her doorbell ring. Hachise answered to find Miaya, who vicariously accused me of making the Ultimate Survivor cry. Remembering the inhaler that I had acquired from the MonoMono Machine, I gave the item to Hachise and told Miaya that my reason for being here was to deliver it. Hachise defended me, but Miaya seemed skeptical, so I excused myself and stepped out of the room. 

Lunch was quieter than normal that day. Reiko, Charlotte, and Ann were prepping for the performance. Takamaru was taking a nap. Ren and Yusuke were nowhere to be seen. Kari and Hachise kept to their rooms while Miaya tended to them in turn. Lucille, Noise, Haruki, and I sat around a single table. Our quiet meal was interrupted when Haruki asked, “So, who do you think will be the next to go?” 

“Keep it up, and it might be you, clown,” Noise growled. 

“No one is killing anyone else,” Lucille deadpanned. “It’d be impossible to get away with something now that we have the Ultimate Forensic Criminalist's lab.” 

“That just makes Kari the most likely target,” Haruki chuckled. “Can anyone else use it?” 

“Miaya might,” I added. 

“Well, the killer can still take out two students,” Haruki argued. 

“Shut the fuck up,” Noise groaned. “I’m trying to digest a fuckin’ sandwich here. Besides, your combinatorics are jacked. The cardinality of subset S1 of all students S such that the members s of S1 can use the Ultimate Criminalist's lab is such that S1≥3.” 

“Are you saying you can use Kari’s Ultimate Research Lab?” Lucille clarified. 

“If I could, wouldn’t that just make me 1 of the clown’s targets?” Noise retorted. 

“Haruki’s just screwing around,” I sighed. 

“I think these discussions are more valuable than you give me credit for,” Haruki defended. “Talking over who’s more likely to be targeted is a more useful way to prevent murders than blindly and stubbornly insisting that no more will occur.” 

“Ain’t you got practice or some shit?” Noise asked. 

“Alas, you are correct!” Haruki dramatized as he wolfed down his remaining food. “ _Adieu_!” 

Most of the day was uneventful thereafter. I spent some time in my room wondering when the Phantom Thieves would make a move to steal Kari’s heart. I hadn’t heard from them today about getting into Miaya’s room, but Ren had seemed like he had a plan. They were professionals, after all. My interference would likely only hinder the process. 

Deciding to continue my day as normal for now, I looked down at the pile of objects on my coffee table: the golden katana, the voodoo doll, and the black-and-white pom-poms. After checking my e-Handbook, I found that while Haruki, Ann, and Reiko were in the Ultimate Thespian's lab, Charlotte was by herself on the deck of the ship. Curious, I took the pom-poms off my table and made my way to the deck. 

Standing alone by the railing of the grand vessel, Charlotte was staring off at the endless horizon. I approached her and tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention. However, my prompting had startled her more than I had intended: the Ultimate Cheerleader squeaked like a startled mouse and nearly jumped overboard before catching herself on the railing. “I’m so sorry!” I exclaimed as I helped Charlotte back onto the deck. 

The feminine goliath held her hand over her chest and regained her breath for a moment. “No, no, it’s fine,” she assured me. “I was just zoning out.”

“What’s on your mind?” I asked. 

“Well,” Charlotte started, “this is kind of a first for me. I hadn’t really thought about it until today, but this is the first time my dad won’t be watching me perform.” 

“Really?” I asked as I leaned against the railing next to her. “He’s watched every single one of your performances?” 

“Yeah,” Charlotte explained, “he watched every last one, even when he was sick or had to skip work or anything. One time, he was hospitalized after an accident at work, but he still got one of his friends to go and live-stream the performance so he could watch from the hospital.” 

“He sounds incredibly supportive,” I admired. 

“You have no idea,” Charlotte sighed. “When I came out to him, he offered to help me pay for my surgery, but he gave me one condition. My family doesn’t have a lot of money, so he said if I could get a fully-paid scholarship to college, he would use my college fund to pay for my transition.” 

“Whoa,” I marveled, “so… did you get the scholarship?”

“You betcha!” Charlotte giggled. “My cheerleading got me athletic scholarships to some of the best universities in Japan. After that, my dad kept his promise, and I transitioned!” 

“Lucille told me I should ask you about that,” I continued. 

“Yeah, I was a boy at birth. At least, everyone called me a boy for the longest time,” she explained, “but really, I think I was always a girl. My dad was a bit surprised when I told him, but I think he knew deep down the whole time. He might have known even longer than I did.” 

“What’d your mom think?” I wondered when my curiosity got the best of me. 

“She doesn’t know,” Charlotte admitted. “My parents divorced when I was younger. My mom fell out of touch after that.”

“Oh, my bad, I hope that wasn’t—”

“You’re fine,” Charlotte interrupted with a chuckle. “Anyway, thanks for talking with me, I need to find some pom-poms and start getting pumped.” 

“Would these work?” I asked as I offered her the pom-poms from the MonoMono Machine.

“Oh, these are perfect!” Charlotte exclaimed. “Thank you so much! I’ll tell you what. Let’s do some warm-ups together!” 

“Alright, I’m down!” I agreed. 

Charlotte roped me into nearly half an hour of agonizing yoga stretches before she started practicing with her new pom-poms. “Give me an H-O-P-E!” she cheered. 

“H-O-P-E!” I echoed. 

“Give me a P-E-A-K!” 

“P-E-A-K!” I repeated. 

“Hope’s… Peak!” she exclaimed as the goliath leapt her height into the air and pointed her arms skyward. She landed on the ground with a noticeable thud before twirling her pom-poms and stepping from side to side. “Now I’m pumped!” she cheered before executing a perfect standing backflip and offering me a high five that nearly dislocated my wrist. 

After struggling to keep up with Charlotte’s workout routine for a few hours, I returned to the restaurant for dinner. Finding myself hungrier than usual, I enjoyed my meal alongside most of the other students. Hachise appeared briefly but then excused herself to eat in private while Miaya left to bring food to Kari. Ren grumbled to himself when Noise noticed the oddly curved shape of today’s chopped carrots. Yusuke apparently found an abstract inspiration in a coffee stain that assailed Takamaru’s uniform. Lucille jokingly accused me of keeping the biggest carrot for myself. Then, the six of us headed for the Ultimate Thespian's lab. 

Arriving several minutes before the performance, we sat together near the front row. Yusuke sat at the end of the line with Ren to his right. Takamaru sat next to Ren, and Noise sat next to Takamaru. Lucille sat between Noise and myself. “Didn’t Miaya say she’d bring Pres?” Takamaru asked. “I don’t see them.” 

“They seem to be on their way,” Lucille observed as she opened the map on her e-Handbook. 

Moments later, Miaya entered the theater with Kari and Hachise on either side of her. Kari was religiously monitoring Miaya’s e-Handbook, which the therapist held in one hand while carrying an absurdly large tub of popcorn in the other. Hachise seemed to be smiling warmly under her respirator as she kept pace with the other two. “Hey, everyone!” the Ultimate Survivor greeted us with a wave. 

“ _Ciao_!” I greeted her back. 

“Glad you could make it,” Takamaru added. The others still seemed a bit wary. 

Hachise took a seat next to me, and Miaya sat next to her before passing her popcorn down for us to share. Kari sat in a few rows behind the group so she could keep an eye on us. Once we were settled, we noticed Reiko making her way from backstage to the balcony on the opposite side of the lab from the stage. “Ladies and gentlemen,” she announced through a microphone in the balcony, “thank you all for attending this once-in-a-lifetime performance! Hope’s Peak Academy is proud to present the one and only Ultimate Troupe!” 

Haruki, Ann, and Charlotte rose from the trapdoor beneath the stage. Each of them was wearing a sparkling cheer uniform covered in silver and black sequins and glitter. Unseen speakers responded to Reiko’s apparent summons, and music blared through the Ultimate Thespian's lab as the three performed a stunning dance routine that ended with Charlotte hoisting Haruki and Ann into the air—one in each of her muscular arms. On cue, the multicolored lights from overhead focused on the trio and reflected off their uniforms to fill the room with dazzling rays. 

The students around me clapped, and I joined in their applause as Haruki bowed. Afterward, Charlotte set Ann gently to the ground and tossed Haruki into the air. As he reached the zenith of his ascent, he landed atop a previously-unseen, razor-thin tightwire. The music changed from an upbeat electronic mix to a more old-fashioned folk tune while Haruki crossed his arms and began to dance atop the wire. Charlotte, meanwhile, performed the same dance in time on the stage below the wire. 

In the time it took the two to finish their dance, a small ring attached to a strap had been lowered from the rafters. Further inspection revealed that Ann had made her way upward via ladder while Haruki and Charlotte drew the crowd’s attention. Haruki somersaulted off the tightwire and caught the ring in his hand. Holding himself midair, he spun heels-over-head over and over without losing grip on the ring. I lost count after twenty spins, and when he finally let go, he flipped through the air only to be caught perfectly in Charlotte’s bridal embrace. This time, the small crowd gave a standing ovation. 

Ann descended back to the stage while Charlotte set Haruki down, and the three took a bow. “Thank you, thank you, you’re all too kind!” Haruki cheered as he blew kisses to the crowd. With the crowd still cheering, Charlotte dashed into the balcony behind the audience and shortly returned with Reiko, whom she pushed forward and forced to offer a similar bow before the audience. Her humble gesture was reciprocated by a wolf whistle that I assumed came from Takamaru. 

With the show concluded, each of us returned to our dorms for the night. There was some lag in the departures as Reiko accompanied Haruki, Ann, and Charlotte backstage to change out of their sparkling uniforms. Takamaru hung back to wait on his girlfriend. Kari remained as well as she appeared to contemplate something. Miaya stayed with Kari. However, I left the Ultimate Thespian's lab in a group with Lucille, Hachise, Ren, Yusuke, and Noise. 

“That was quite the spectacle,” Yusuke marveled. “The dazzling lights paired with the calculated motions spoke to my heart as clearly as my eyes.” 

“That was almost a 13,000° spin,” Noise analyzed. “I’ve got to hand it to the bastard; I think that’s his record so far.” 

“I can’t believe Haruki pulled that move off!” Hachise enthused through her respirator. “He must be in incredible shape!” 

“It’s actually harder than it looks,” Lucille explained. “That move requires the performer to dislocate and immediately replace their shoulder on each turn. Miscalculating even a single rotation could cause irreparable damage.” 

“I almost hate to be impressed by him,” Ren admitted. 

“Charlotte was incredible too,” I acknowledged. “Nobody else could have thrown him that high with one arm, and she kept in perfect sync with his dance without even seeing him.” 

“That’s the Ultimate Cheerleader for you,” Lucille bragged on behalf of her classmate. 

“You all are missing the true genius here,” Yusuke argued. “The coordination of light and sound paired with the choreography are what concocted a performance of this grandeur.” 

“We sure as hell can’t sell Reiko short,” Noise agreed. 

“Careful, you’ll make Takamaru jealous,” Lucille teased. 

“And Ann was absolutely stunning!” Hachise added. 

 _This feels new. Until now, I couldn’t remember a time where it felt like everyone was getting along. Maybe Reiko was right about this. This could have been just what we needed to unite everyone._ As I thought in turn about Charlotte’s determination, Reiko’s genius, Ann’s assistance, and Haruki’s talent, I couldn’t help but fixate on this group truly worthy of the name “Ultimate Troupe.” 

The next morning, when I rubbed my eyes after waking to Monokuma’s announcement, I felt a foreign presence press against my face. _What the hell’s this?_ I stared at the new black and white bangle that had appeared on my left wrist overnight. Suddenly, Monokuma’s voice sounded throughout my room. _Didn’t he just play the morning announcement?_

“All students, please report to the deck of the _S.S. Titanokuma-A_ immediately!” the high-pitched voice demanded. “All hands on deck! Emergency! Emergency!” 

_It’s too early for this shit._

Unsurprisingly, I was the last student to arrive on the deck of the ship. All thirteen students were present and accounted for—if not somewhat groggy—and we glared past the harsh morning sun to our obnoxious headmaster, who was perched ever-so-smugly atop the ship’s aftcastle. “Greetings, beloved students of Hope’s Peak Academy!” 

“I would appreciate it if you cut to the chase,” Kari sneered up at the ursine announcer. 

“Get off the stage!” Takamaru shouted. 

“Boo!” Charlotte and Haruki cried as speech bubbles containing censored expletives appeared over Usami on Miaya’s e-Handbook. 

“Hmm, tough crowd…” Monokuma pondered as if to himself before continuing, “Ahem! As you may have noticed, each of you now has a bangle attached to your left wrist! These bangles are your next _motives_!” I took a glance around and noticed that the other students each seemed to have a black-and-white bangle on their wrists just like mine. 

“Motives?” Hachise wondered aloud. 

“I was wondering when this would happen…” Lucille mused. 

“The fuck would we murder someone over bracelets?” Noise asked almost rhetorically. 

“I’m glad you asked!” Monokuma replied as red text lit up on my bangle. I assume the same happened to the others’ since they each looked down at their wrists as well. 

“LEAVING THE DORMITORY DURING NIGHTTIME,” was all the text said. 

“As of now, each of your bangles features a unique **forbidden action** ,” Monokuma explained. “This is something that you must never, ever, under any circumstances, ever in a bajillion-million years do. If you perform your forbidden action, the bangle will inject a fast-acting lethal poison directly into your bloodstream that will kill you in a matter of seconds!” 

“We’ll be executed on the spot?” Reiko clarified. 

“Correct!” Monokuma affirmed. “The forbidden actions have a zero-tolerance policy! You’ll find that the bangles are also quite difficult to remove! However, they will also inject the poison if you try to force them off, so don’t even think about it!” 

 _I mean… This is annoying, but I’m not going to kill someone just because I have a curfew. Regardless, freaky as this stuff about the poison is…_ Images of blades and fire flashed through my mind suddenly. _It’s nothing compared to what happened to Kudo-sensei or the students from Class B…_

“If you find the terms of your forbidden action to be less than agreeable, you can always ditch the new restriction by killing somebody!” Monokuma encouraged with a gleeful jump into the air. “As soon as a body discovery announcement plays, all of the bangles will unlock, and you can return to your peaceful lives aboard the ship!” 

“Wait. Can’t we just wait for someone else to break the rules then?” Takamaru wondered. 

“I imagine we would likely discover their body if they performed their forbidden action,” Lucille observed. 

Noise raised his hand, but no one seemed to notice. 

“That’s a negatory!” Monokuma corrected. “Performing your forbidden action is similar to breaking the rules, so no announcement will play for the body of a student who dies as a result! After all, there weren’t any announcements for Shigekazu or the blackened!” 

“Thus, the bangles will remain until an actual _murder_ occurs,” Kari concluded. 

“You got it, toots!” Monokuma giggled. “But wait, _bear_ ’s more!” 

“Didn’t he already use that pun?” Charlotte asked no one in particular. 

“Since my last motive about the spy didn’t really get things rolling like I’d hoped,” Monokuma started, “I’ve decided to up the ante a bit this time! In addition to the forbidden actions, one of the students here is acting as an agent of yours truly!” 

Noise began waving his raised hand more emphatically, but no one responded. 

“We already know about the alleged spy,” Yusuke remarked. 

“Well, from now on, the aforementioned agent will be referred to as the _attacker_ ,” Monokuma snickered. “This student has been given special privileges. They may disregard the fifteenth rule!” 

“What’s the fifteenth rule?” Ann asked. 

“The guilty party may only kill a maximum of two people during any single ‘killing game,’” Lucille recited. 

“Yep! As long as this motive continues, that rule no longer applies to the attacker!” Monokuma confirmed. 

I checked my e-Handbook to be sure, and true to his word, the rule had been modified: 

15\. The guilty party may only kill a maximum of two people during any single "killing game." This rule does not apply to the “attacker” as long as the “forbidden actions” are in place. 

“Hence, as long as there is no body discovery announcement, the attacker may kill as many students as they like,” Kari observed. “Ergo, the attacker has free rein to wipe everyone out as long as no corpses are discovered.” 

“You’re sharp as always, Pres! That’s what I like about you!” Monokuma chortled. “Of course, if everyone dies, there’s no more killing game. Regardless, the killing game will continue at least until there are only two students left! At that point, the survivors may graduate and return to the outside world!” 

“In that case, the attacker has a motive…” Lucille deduced. “This allows them to graduate while bypassing the class trial system so long as they prevent the body discovery announcement from playing…” 

“That graduation is bogus!” Hachise protested. “If the survivors get to return to the outside world, why am I still here?” 

“Puhuhu, I wonder about that,” Monokuma chuckled. “Anyway, I went all out with this motive, so I hope it was worth the wait! Happy killing, everyone!” Monokuma vanished into seemingly nowhere. Just like that, the trust that the Ultimate Troupe had forged between us last night had suddenly vanished. 

After a long silence, Kari spoke, “Well, first of all, I demand to know everyone’s forbidden action. This may help us ascertain the severity of the situation.” 

Noise was practically jumping out of his shoes at this point. He was waving his hand frantically back and forth, and when this failed him, he shoved his palm into Lucille’s face. “Jeez, yes, Noise, what is it? Just say it already,” the Ultimate Prosecutor groaned. 

“Pres, that’s a fuckin’ stupid idea,” Noise growled at Kari. 

“Excuse you?” Kari retorted. 

“Yes, Noise, please elaborate,” Lucille requested. 

“Someone’s forbidden action could be recursive,” Noise replied. 

“What’s that?” Takamaru asked. 

“Simply put,” Hachise explained, “someone’s forbidden action could prevent them from showing others their forbidden action. It’s definitely a possibility.” 

“Regardless,” Kari rebutted, “if someone’s forbidden action kept them away from food or water, that greatly affects how we should address this situation. We need to know the severity.” 

“How does this sound?” Lucille suggested. “Anyone who wants to share their forbidden action can do so now, but otherwise you are under no obligation.” 

“What do you mean by ‘no obligation’?” Kari snapped. “We have an obligation to—”

“Kari, that’s enough,” Miaya interjected vicariously through her avatar. “It’s not worth the risk.” 

Kari fumed silently for a moment longer before Yusuke stepped forward. “My forbidden action is the following,” he said as he displayed his bangle. 

The device read, “SNIFFING WET PAINT.” 

“Please refrain from presenting paints or similar supplies to me as a result,” he requested formally. 

Another awkward silence fell on the group before Noise raised his hand again. “Let me guess,” Lucille deduced. “Yours is something about talking, right?” she asked. 

Noise nodded and begrudgingly showed us his bangle. “SPEAKING WITHOUT BEING CALLED ON,” it read. 

_These forbidden actions seem… juvenile._

“Would anyone else care to step forward?” Kari prompted. 

“What about you?” Ren pushed back. 

“That’s…” Kari trailed off. 

“If Pres won’t show hers after acting all high and mighty, we’re done here,” Takamaru spat before leaving the group. “I’m going back to bed.” Reiko hesitated a moment before following him. 

“We should eat breakfast, everyone,” Charlotte suggested. 

“Indulge yourselves,” Kari almost scolded before storming off. “I’ll be finding the identity of this so-called ‘attacker’ in the meantime.” 

Breakfast was calm and quiet—uncannily so. Luckily, for those of us in the restaurant, no one’s forbidden action seemed to prevent them from eating. Hachise took her food back to her room as usual. Yusuke seemed depressed about his forbidden action, so Ann was suggesting he try getting into sculpture. Ren meanwhile lamented that they couldn’t try for colored pencils or other painting alternatives in the MonoMono Machine with the condemnation of the Ultimate Lucky Student's lab. Haruki and Charlotte tried to diffuse Lucille’s bad mood by suggesting she try on Ann’s dazzling uniform from the performance. Miaya sat next to Noise and passed notes back and forth with the Ultimate Mathematician; the two would occasionally begin to giggle uncontrollably upon reading the other’s message. 

Before long, Miaya left to bring a cup of coffee to Kari. Shortly afterward, Takamaru and Reiko entered the restaurant. “Hello, everyone!” Reiko greeted us as she sat near me at the table. 

“If that little mongrel thinks he can keep me from talking about _aircrafts_ just by keeping me from saying a synonym for _aircrafts_ , then he has another thing coming!” Takamaru ranted to the room. “I’m the Ultimate Pilot, goddammit, and I’ll talk about _aircrafts_ as much as I want and whenever I want because _aircrafts_ are the only true angels flying throughout the heavens in this god-forsaken world!” 

“What’s up with him?” I asked Reiko under my breath. 

“He’s upset because he can’t say the word _plane_ ,” Reiko explained as she showed me her bangle. 

According to the bright red letters, “TELLING A LIE” was her forbidden action. 

While Takamaru held the crowd’s attention with his prolonged rambling about “aircrafts,” a note subtly slid across the table to my plate. Looking toward its source, I saw Ren nodding at me before taking another sip of his coffee. 

The small paper said, “Meet at the hideout after breakfast.” Ren got up from his seat to leave shortly after. Ann and Yusuke followed less than a minute later. 

I started to stand up after them, but Lucille grabbed my wrist from nearby. “Now where would you be sneaking off to with the Ultimate Phantom Thief and his associates at this early in the morning?” she murmured teasingly. 

“Huh, what makes you think I’m—”

“What do you take me for?” she interrupted while slightly tightening her grip on my wrist. 

“Lucille, look. It’s…” I trailed off while I struggled to think of a realistic way to describe the Metaverse in such a brief period. When I failed to come up with anything believable, I settled for, “…complicated.” 

“That’s why you still owe me an explanation,” Lucille reminded me. 

“I know,” I assured her. “I promise I’ll explain once I take care of this.” 

“Alright,” Lucille sighed under her breath, “I trust you.” 

With that, she released my arm, and I left the restaurant. Assuming Ren could only have meant one place by the “hideout” in his note, I made my way downstairs to the entrance of the Ultimate Phantom Thief's lab, the door of which was now covered in Reiko’s green tape. 

“It appears our newest member has arrived,” Yusuke observed. 

“Glad you could join us,” Ann smiled. 

“What’s up? Did you get into Miaya’s room?” I asked. 

“I’m afraid it’s not that simple,” another voice chimed in as Morgana poked his head out of Ren’s bag. “Not only do we have to open the door, Kari needs to see the door open to change her cognition that it can’t be breached.” 

“We shall also have to strike quickly before her cognition resets,” Yusuke elaborated. 

“Then what’s the plan?” I asked. 

“A coordinated attack,” Ren explained. 

“Our leader couldn’t get into Miaya’s room yesterday,” Morgana elaborated. “Apparently, Kari doesn’t want any boys in the room now that they’re rooming together.” 

_Weird, Kari let me into her own room before. Then again, she does seem to have only been getting worse since the last trial…_

“That’s why I’m going to get the door open,” Ann continued. “Miaya’s in her room right now. I’ll go ring her doorbell and have her let me inside.” 

“At the same time, our leader will draw Kari to the dormitory,” Morgana directed. “Once he’s arrived, Ann will open the door from within to let him inside.” 

“Since the president will be in the dormitory, this should change her cognition that the students cannot enter Miaya’s room without her permission,” Yusuke concluded. 

“The rest of us will be on standby in the Palace,” Morgana meowed. “Once that barrier comes down, we’ll storm in and steal Kari’s Treasure.” 

“In that case,” I wondered, “why is the leader luring Kari to the dormitory? If he’s the Ultimate Phantom Thief, shouldn’t he be on standby in the Metaverse? Someone else can lure Kari.” 

Ren responded by showing me the forbidden action on his bangle: “ENTERING THE METAVERSE.” 

“That… certainly puts a damper on things…” I admitted. 

“It would appear that our so-called headmaster is more informed than we would have liked to believe,” Yusuke speculated. 

“If Monokuma knows about the Metaverse,” Morgana continued, “there might be a connection between Kari’s Palace and this killing game. It does seem an odd coincidence that the remnants of Mementos just happened to be aboard this ship.” 

“We cannot rule out the possibility that the targets of the mastermind’s killing game are not necessarily the students of Hope’s Peak but rather the Phantom Thieves themselves,” Yusuke theorized. 

“That would make everyone else…” Ann started. 

“Collateral,” Ren bit. 

“Our leader’s right,” Morgana agreed. “It’s just a hunch, but if it’s true, this is our fight, not theirs. We need to destroy the remnants of Mementos and eliminate the cognitive distortions on this ship.” 

“I’m sorry you had to get dragged into this,” Ann apologized. 

“No, it’s not your fault,” I assured her. “Monokuma brought us here, and I’m volunteering to help with Kari’s Palace. I made up my mind not to sit back idly anymore.” 

“Then it’s settled,” Ren said as he turned around and tore off the green tape that had been placed over the door of his Ultimate Research Lab. “There’s no turning back now.” Morgana ducked his head into Ren’s bag for a moment and returned holding the key they had kept from Kari’s reach the other day. Once Ren unlocked the door to the lab, Morgana jumped from his bag and stepped into the café-like room. 

“Best of luck!” Ann wished us as Yusuke and I entered the lab. 

“To you as well,” Yusuke replied before I closed the door and locked it behind us. 

Not wanting to waste time, I quickly opened the Meta-Nav on my e-Handbook and pressed the creepy eye at the center of the red app. One reality burned away, shifted, and was quickly replaced by another. We stood in a stony room of Kari’s prison-like Palace, and our clothes transformed into our Phantom Thief outfits. Curious, I looked down at my wrist, and I was annoyed to find the bangle featuring my forbidden action was still present. “That reminds me,” I wondered aloud. “Morgana—I mean—Mona, do you have a forbidden action?” I asked the cartoonish cat burglar. 

“Nope!” Mona answered. “I actually don’t think I count as a participant in the killing game. I’ve taken catnaps outside the dormitory after all, and I never got punished for that.” 

“We are fortunate that such an outlier remains on our side of the playing field,” Fox mused, “but we have no time to dawdle on such things here. Let us make haste.” 

Fox and I quickly followed Mona along the route he had secured through the Palace so far. Before long, we found ourselves at the same Safe Room. After exiting the room, Fox and I struggled to open the iron portcullis leading into the now-empty chamber where we had encountered Kari’s Shadow during our last visit. Finally lifting the hefty barricade, we stepped through the room and tried to ignore the wails of our cognitive selves imprisoned in the floor beneath us. As I stepped around the grates, I noticed Hachise’s voice had been added to the cacophony of groaning prisoners. 

At the far end of the unsettling chamber, we waited in front of the shimmering barrier. “Alright, we were quick, but it still took us some time to get here,” Mona explained. “Panther and Joker should be opening the door in the real world soon.” 

Minutes passed, however, and nothing changed. We had snuck past a number of Shadows on our way here, but none wandered into the empty chamber. Aside from the occasional plea from the imprisoned cognitions beneath the floor, the uncanny quiet was unsettling. The waiting continued for ten or fifteen more minutes until, suddenly, the Palace began to shake. “What’s going on?” I asked as the unexpected earthquake nearly knocked me off my feet. 

“Is the Palace crumbling?” Fox wondered aloud. 

“No, this isn’t that!” Mona clarified. “This is bad! It’s the same thing that happened during the last trial! Something’s put Kari’s Palace on high alert! The distortion is expanding!” 

“I could understand if going into her room without permission freaked her out,” I said, “but the door’s still closed! What happened?” 

“Something’s gone wrong,” Mona worried. “We need to return to the real world!” 

“Let us reconvene with the others,” Fox agreed. 

Quickly as we could, the three of us returned to our entry point, and I opened the Meta-Nav to exit the Palace. “Returning to real world. Thank you for your hard work,” the app’s synthetic voice softly announced. 

The cognitive setting around us was quickly replaced with the Ultimate Phantom Thief's lab. “Hurry!” Morgana meowed as he dashed to the door to the lab. “Something must have happened to Kari!” 

As Yusuke darted forward to unlock the door, I closed the Meta-Nav and opened the map on my e-Handbook. However, I was met with an otherwise blank screen only featuring the familiar message, “Map Unavailable!” 

 _This is bad…_ “The map’s down!” I declared. 

“We should check her lab!” Yusuke suggested. “If the plan was unsuccessful, she is most likely still there.” 

 Following Yusuke’s lead, we rushed to the door of the Ultimate Forensic Criminalist's lab. I swallowed a knot in my throat as I stepped forward to open the threshold. To my surprise, however, the door was locked. “It’s locked,” I informed the others. “I didn’t know this door had a lock.” I banged on the door. “Kari! Are you in there? Let us in! We need to talk!” There was no answer. 

“Perhaps she left after all and locked the door behind her,” Yusuke wondered. 

“I’m not sure,” Morgana replied, “but I can smell something behind that door… something bad. Yusuke, pick me up. I’m going to pick the lock.” 

“But, that is against the rules!” Yusuke protested. 

“I’m not part of the game, remember?” Morgana grinned. Hesitantly, Yusuke lifted the cat to the doorknob. Morgana produced a hairpin from his fur and began to work on the lock. “This was much easier in my other form,” Morgana complained. 

Soon after the cat started lockpicking, the nearby door to the infirmary opened. Reiko emerged with a small pill bottle and looked at us suspiciously. “What’s going on?” 

“Reiko, has anything happened recently?” I pressed while interposing myself between her and the collaborative lockpickers. 

“You mean besides the new motives and, um, whatever’s going on here?” Reiko asked. 

“Yes! Have you seen your map?” I asked. 

Reiko reached into the cleavage of her dress for her e-Handbook, but she failed to produce it. “Oh damn, I could’ve sworn I’d brought it with me, but I guess I left it in Takamaru’s room. I was hanging out with him there, but he started to get another migraine, so I came straight here to get some medicine for him.” 

“What do you think you’re doing to my door?” an authoritarian voice demanded. I looked down the hall and saw Kari approaching. Sweat on her brow and messy hair betrayed her normally-kempt appearance, and she was carrying someone in her arms. 

The person in Kari’s arms lay perfectly still. She almost appeared to be sleeping soundly in the president’s careful embrace. Her straight, silver hair rested over half of her face, but it could not mask that the left half of her body had turned purple with engorged blood vessels. Her eyes were closed, but a stream of blood trickled from her left eye as if she were crying. 

In that same moment, the door to the Ultimate Forensic Criminalist's lab came open. “Got it!” Morgana meowed triumphantly. 

*Ding dong, dong ding…* 

“A body has been discovered!” Monokuma’s voice proclaimed as his face appeared on a nearby monitor. “After a certain amount of time, which you may use however you like, the **class trial** will begin!” As soon as the announcement played, I heard a subtle click, and I felt my bangle fall from my wrist. 

“What the fuck…” Reiko gawked. I looked into the Ultimate Forensic Criminalist's lab, and my body recoiled in horror at the spectacle therein. Hachise Kurotsuki, the Ultimate Survivor, was tied to Kari’s office chair, which had been moved to the center of the lab. Her body was mangled beyond belief. Broken bones contorted out of shape within her limbs. Bruises and gashes covered her skin. Blood drenched her humble outfit, and her respirator lay crushed on the floor next to the chair. Her mouth was agape, and her eyelids were taped open to expose horrifying, empty sockets. The hair had been shaved from her head, and it lay clotted together amidst the blood surrounding the seat. 


	7. Chapter 3: A Tale of Two (Sinking) Ships - Deadly Life

“This is…” Yusuke started before grabbing his mouth. “I think I may become sick…” 

“Get out of my way,” Kari demanded grimly as she shoved past the Ultimate Artist and entered her lab. Seeming to ignore the corpse in her chair, she carried the girl in her arms to one of the machines in the lab. As soon as she set the body down, however, her knees buckled beneath her, and she fell to the floor. 

“Hold on,” Yusuke requested. “That’s…” 

“Lucille!” I cried as I rushed to the body on the machine. “Lucille! Wake up! There’s been a body discovery announcement! We need to investigate!” I grabbed her shoulders and almost shook her in my panic as I shouted, “Lucy!” again. 

Once I did, however, Kari dug her long fingernails into my arm and glared up at me from the floor. “She’s gone…” Kari snarled. “She was poisoned… Don’t disturb her body… I need to… investigate…” 

“Kari…” I marveled at the exhausted president for a moment before I found tears streaming uncontrollably down my face. 

*Ding dong, dong ding…* 

“A body has been discovered!” Monokuma’s voice proclaimed as his face appeared on a nearby monitor. “After a certain amount of time, which you may use however you like, the **class trial** will begin!” 

“You must be joking!” Yusuke exclaimed. 

“There you are!” another voice interjected as Haruki charged into the room. “What the polka-dotted hell is going on in here?” 

“Clearly, there’s been a murder!” Reiko exclaimed as she gestured toward Hachise’s mangled body. 

“That’s what I’m here to tell you about!” Haruki shouted. “There’s a body in the dormitory!” 

“Another one…” Yusuke wondered. 

“Takamaru!” Reiko shouted in panic. She darted past Haruki and rushed toward the staircase. Yusuke and Haruki followed after her. 

“Go with them!” Morgana meowed. “I’ll make sure Kari doesn’t disturb the scene, but hurry! I have a bad feeling!” 

Practically dragging my body away from Kari and Lucille, I forced myself out of the Ultimate Research Lab and sprinted up the stairs after the others. I quickly reached the dormitory, where I saw Takamaru standing with Miaya and Haruki. Reiko was holding her boyfriend tightly and visibly shaking. The group was staring into an open dorm room. I looked into the door after them and gazed at the apparent source of the second body discovery announcement. 

Two bodies lay side-by-side on the dormitory floor: Ann Takamaki, the Ultimate Model, and Charlotte Kinoshita, the Ultimate Cheerleader. Both girls were lying face up, and detached bangles lay close to their bodies. The left half of Charlotte’s body was an ugly purple, and blood dripped from her left eye in a manner identical to Lucille’s. There was a prominent gash in Ann’s neck, from which blood had spilled onto the ground around her and the Ultimate Cheerleader. Yusuke knelt beside the pair and clutched his heart. Noise was standing beside him. He was gripping the artist’s other wrist as if he had just prevented Yusuke from disturbing the crime scene. 

“Ann…” Yusuke muttered to himself. 

“I can’t believe there were four victims…” Haruki mused. 

“Hold the fuck up,” Noise interjected. “Did you say _4_ victims?” 

“Kari’s lab,” I murmured. Noise passed me a concerned look. Then he grabbed my shoulder. 

“Take care of things here,” he requested before rushing out of the room. “Miaya! Come on!” he shouted. Miaya looked at the crime scene in the room. Then she rushed after Noise. 

My e-Handbook buzzed in my pocket, and I opened it to read this case’s Monokuma File:

“There are multiple victims.”

“The times of death varied between 10:16am and 10:32am.” 

 “Each victim suffered a different cause of death.”

  _Fat lot of good this does…_

“Well, clock’s ticking. Let’s begin the investigation.” I could practically hear Lucille’s voice in my head. 

“Yeah,” I replied under my breath, “let’s.” 

Holding my breath, I took a little time to search Charlotte’s and Ann’s bodies for injuries. Investigating Ann was easy, but I needed Yusuke’s help to lift Charlotte and check her back. Aside from the wound on Ann’s neck, neither of them sustained any visible external injuries. Other than the bloodstains, their daywear was perfectly intact on their bodies. “Does Charlotte’s condition not look familiar to you?” Yusuke asked. 

“Yeah,” I agreed, “it’s the same as Lucille’s.” 

“Could perhaps they have the same causes of death then?” Yusuke wondered. 

“I think so,” I agreed. “Kari said Lucille was poisoned. Without any visible injuries, that makes sense for Charlotte too.” 

“But, the Monokuma File clearly states each victim had a different cause of death,” Yusuke read aloud as he showed me his e-Handbook. 

“That’s because Charlotte isn’t a victim,” Haruki answered as he approached us, “not technically speaking, that is.” 

“How can you say that?” Yusuke asked as he gestured toward the motionless goliath. 

“Monokuma made it pretty clear there would be no body discovery announcement and no class trial for students who died from performing their forbidden actions,” Haruki explained with a grin. “Now, this might be hard for you, but try to think for a moment. The Monokuma File is given as evidence for the class trial. Therefore…” 

“The ‘victims’ in the Monokuma File don’t include students who died because they performed their forbidden actions,” I finished. 

“I fail to understand,” Yusuke wondered, “why anyone would perform their forbidden action knowing it would result in their death.” 

“Let’s find out then,” I answered as I took Charlotte’s and Ann’s bangles. 

The bangle next to Ann’s left hand read, “DISCOVERING A DEAD BODY.” 

The bangle by Charlotte’s right knee read, “SHOWING OR TELLING SOMEONE YOUR FORBIDDEN ACTION.” 

Yusuke stared at Charlotte’s. “This is…” 

“I guess Noisy Boy was right about the so-called ‘recursive forbidden action,’” Haruki applauded. 

“I’m tempted to tell him you called him that, but I’ve seen enough bodies for today,” I sighed. 

“Charlotte was poisoned because she told someone about her forbidden action,” Yusuke concluded skeptically. “I still cannot understand why she would do such a thing.” 

“Maybe someone saw it by mistake,” Haruki wondered. “I wonder if that would count. Is she technically ‘showing’ them if they see it on accident?” 

“You would know better than we would,” I said to Haruki. “You saw them before us, after all.” 

“Don’t look at me!” Haruki added with a defensive smile. “I found the bodies and came running! At first, I assumed Monokuma's attacker had gotten them, so I wanted to trigger the body discovery announcement as soon as possible to prevent any more deaths!” 

 “Well, maybe there are more clues,” I sighed as I glanced around the room. Charlotte’s e-Handbook was missing, but Ann’s rested on the floor near her body. Aside from a thin trail of blood leading into the room from the hallway, the dorm room was mostly intact. The exception was the door: The door’s top hinge was broken, and a serious dent had been smashed into the outside of the threshold. A sign with Ann’s pixelated likeness on the outside of the broken door confirmed my recollection that this was, indeed, Ann’s room. _Someone clearly broke in…_

With time wasting, I left Yusuke and Haruki to continue the investigation of the room and stepped out into the hallway. Takamaru was sitting against the door across the hall and massaging his temples while Reiko squatted next to him. “Hey, sorry, Gale, I’m not feeling so good,” Takamaru admitted. 

“No need to apologize,” I assured him, “do you mind if I ask you a few questions?” 

“Yeah, I don’t really feel up to it, but go ahead,” Takamaru groaned. “I didn’t really enjoy being suspected in the last trial.” 

“Were you one of the people who triggered the second body discovery announcement?” I asked. 

“Yeah, unfortunately,” Takamaru answered. 

“What exactly happened leading up to the announcement?” I inquired. “I thought about asking Haruki, but he’s, well, Haruki.” 

“As far as I know,” Takamaru replied, “Haruki didn’t trigger the second announcement anyway. I was taking a nap in my room, trying to sleep off a migraine I got after breakfast. I heard the first announcement, so I ran outside. I think Miaya and Noise did the same thing because they came out of Miaya’s room at the same time. I know because their door hadn’t closed yet when I looked. We saw that Ann’s door was busted, so we assumed that’s where the murder probably was and investigated, but when we saw Ann and Charlotte in there, a second announcement played. I was just kind of stunned for a bit. I hadn’t really woken up yet. Then Reiko came running and practically tackled me to the ground. After that, you and the others showed up. Now I’m just waiting for these meds to kick in so I can see straight to help investigate.” 

“Did you notice anything when you came to get Takamaru’s medicine from the infirmary?” I asked Reiko. 

“No, everything was normal when I left the room,” Reiko assured me. “It took me longer than expected to find the right medicine, but I couldn’t have been gone for more than, like, fifteen minutes by the time I ran into you downstairs. What the hell was going on down there, by the way?”

“Yusuke and I thought something had happened to Kari. Morgana could smell trouble on the other side of her door, and our handbooks’ maps went blank, so we were breaking in to make sure she hadn’t been murdered,” I explained. 

“Morgana?” Reiko added a quizzical look to the name. 

“Ren’s cat,” I clarified. 

“Oh, that explains the cat. Wait. How long has there been a cat?” she wondered. 

“You should ask Ren about it,” I replied. 

“Speaking of Ren, where is he?” Takamaru asked. 

“I’m… not sure,” I admitted. 

Thinking it best to give Takamaru time to recover, I left the couple where they were and made up my mind to investigate the scene downstairs. I kept an eye out for Ren or anything out of the ordinary on my way back to the Ultimate Forensic Criminalist's lab, but the empty halls served only as a reminder of our decreasing numbers. 

When I entered Kari’s lab, I found the Ultimate Student Council President slaving away over the machine that was analyzing Lucille’s body. Hachise’s body, on the contrary, was exactly as we had left it. Noise was sitting at Kari’s desk with a full cup of coffee next to him. He leaned over Kari’s computer and typed something in. “Try it now,” he suggested to the president. 

“I told you I don’t want your help,” Kari said emotionlessly. Her eyes stared soullessly down at the Ultimate Prosecuting Attorney. “Bring Miaya.”

“And I told you Miaya can’t work with that thing in the room,” Noise replied. “Now, try it again.” 

“Then move the body,” Kari instructed matter-of-factly. 

“ _Try it_ _again_ ,” Noise repeated. 

Kari pressed some buttons on the machine. “It’s working now…” Kari hesitated to admit. 

“I thought Lucille was poisoned because she performed her forbidden action,” I added as I approached Noise. “Shouldn’t you guys be examining Hachise’s body?” 

“We thought about that, but it seems like 0 people actually saw Lucille perform her forbidden action, so we’re running tests to make sure the poison that killed her is the same as the poison in the bangles. That’d be a pretty fuckin’ nasty assumption to get bit by.” Noise bit his lip as he finished his explanation. 

“What was her forbidden action?” I asked. “Did you check the bangle?” 

“She wasn’t allowed to kiss anyone,” Noise answered as he showed me a disconnected bangle. 

The bangle read, “KISSING SOMEONE ON THE LIPS.” 

“It seems like a pretty easy rule to follow,” Noise continued. “I can’t imagine why she’d break it, and if she did, she’d have to leave a witness, and since she’d’ve died from performing her forbidden action, they’d have no reason not to fess up since they didn’t kill her.” 

“Then, you’re thinking something else might have poisoned her,” I concluded. 

“That makes the most sense to us,” Noise agreed. “Pres’s in a bad place, but she’s bright. We rarely agree on anything, so we’re pretty confident when we do.” 

“What do you make of Hachise’s murder?” I asked. I honestly was hoping to avoid examining the body myself. 

“Frankly, I don’t even know where to fuckin’ start,” Noise sighed. “Practically every bone in her body is broken, and she’s covered in cuts and bruises. She had her head shaved and her eyes gouged out. We examined the broken respirator to be sure, and it’s the real thing, not a prop from the Ultimate Thespian's lab or anything like that. Cause of death could’ve been anything from the concussions to blood loss to the shock.” 

“That’s…” I quickly found myself at a loss for words. 

“Whoever did this is a fuckin’ sicko,” Noise finished for me. “Monokuma’s a professional. He’s driven a few of us to murder, yeah, but it’s hard to believe someone would go this far on account of the killing game. If that’s all this was about, they could’ve made it quick and been done with it, less likely to get caught that way, but this = torture. That means the killer’s either a total sadist, or…”

“They wanted to know something,” I finished his thought this time. 

“If that’s what it was about, Hachise clearly wasn’t talkin’ if they went this far,” Noise figured. “It still doesn’t make sense to me, though. Sure, this room locks, but it ain’t exactly soundproof. I’m no expert, but we ain’t found a gag, and keepin’ this much damage quiet has to be a fuckin’ chore. It’s hard to imagine an impulsive torturer, especially if they were after info, but if this was premeditated, couldn’t they have used a better room?” 

“What you said about the lock reminds me,” I segued since I lacked an answer to the tattooed mathematician’s conundrum. “Kari, does this room have a normal lock?” I asked. 

“Yes,” Kari answered succinctly from her machine, “it’s a traditional lock like the one to the Ultimate Phantom Thief's lab. As far as I know, there’s only one key, but anyone can lock it from the inside.” 

“Do you mind telling me where you were when we came to your lab?” I wondered. 

“I had to go to the bathroom,” Kari answered bluntly. “Before you ask, yes, that means I have no map data from that time as well since I was away from my lab. I left the lab at precisely 10:04, so there is no evidence of where anyone was from that time to the time I returned.” 

_That’s a pretty long trip to the bathroom._

“She asked me to keep tabs to make sure no one fucks with the evidence,” Noise sighed from behind Kari’s computer, “but as I’m sure you’ve noticed, the map ain’t workin’ while we investigate.”

“Then,” I continued, “if you locked the lab behind you when you left to go to the bathroom, how did Hachise and her killer get in here?”

“Actually, we have a different mystery at hand,” Kari corrected me. “I thought I had taken my key and locked the lab behind me as usual, but when I returned, the key was not on my person. I found it on the drawer of my desk where I normally keep it when I’m in the lab. I must have forgotten it and left the door unlocked by mistake.” 

“I think she’s tellin’ the truth,” Noise confirmed. “I saw her take the key from the drawer, and Miaya confirmed there’s only 1 of ‘em.” 

“That means that Hachise’s killer entered this unlocked room and managed to lock the door behind them while leaving the key in the room,” I concluded. 

“Yeah, it’s your classic locked-room scenario,” Noise agreed, “a real pain in the ass.” 

“Is it possible they used the backdoor?” I asked as I pointed to the handbook-reader-protected door in the back of the lab. 

“That door doesn’t open for anyone’s handbooks,” Kari replied. “Lucy and—Lucille and I checked the day we discovered this room.” 

_That sounds like another scanner we found on this floor._

“Is there anything else?” Kari asked. 

“Well, I doubt it would be enough to instigate this, but what was Hachise’s forbidden action? Do we know?” I asked. 

“We found this next to her body,” Noise explained as he showed me another disconnected bangle. 

The red letters on the bangle said, “USING A RESPIRATOR OR INHALER.” 

“If that’s all you need,” Kari continued, “please take your investigation elsewhere. I can’t concentrate.” 

“We’ve got this room covered, buddy,” Noise assured me. “We’re counting on you for the rest.” 

Following their instruction, I left the Ultimate Forensic Criminalist's lab. Wondering about their theory regarding Lucille’s poisoning, I stepped into the infirmary across the hall. I found Miaya sorting through a plethora of pharmaceuticals near the medicine cabinet. When she saw my face, she typed something into her e-Handbook, and Usami asked, “Are you feeling alright?” 

“Been better,” I admitted with a sigh, “what about you? Have you found anything?” 

“Well,” Usami started on Miaya’s behalf, “most of the medicine is accounted for. The only things missing are migraine medication, contraceptives, some painkillers, a few laxatives, and asthma medicine.” 

“Takamaru uses the migraine medication. I heard Reiko mention the contraceptives. Hachise took medication for her asthma,” I listed. 

“After the performance last night, Haruki took some painkillers for his shoulder,” Miaya explained vicariously through her avatar.

“That just leaves the laxatives,” I responded. 

“Well, that’s just the medication,” Usami continued. “It’s harder to check the poisons since I can’t open that part of the cabinet, but I’m pretty sure I count one less bottle than when we discovered the lab.” 

“That definitely supports their theory about Lucille’s poisoning,” I noticed. _Something still doesn’t add up about that, though._ “What’s that?” I asked as I gestured to what looked like an e-Handbook I noticed on the medicine cabinet. 

“It looks like a handbook, but I don’t know whose it is,” Usami admitted for Miaya. “I’m afraid to touch it because borrowing them is against the rules…” 

“Well, we won’t ‘borrow’ it,” I assured her, “but I think we can still turn it on.” Without lifting the device from the shelf, I tapped the handbook’s touchscreen to open it. Then, upon checking the ID, I found it belonged to Takamaru Kazeryu. “It’s Takamaru’s,” I shared with the Ultimate Therapist. _What’s his handbook doing in here?_

I left the infirmary with a mind to go upstairs and ask the Ultimate Pilot about his handbook, but when I stepped into the hallway, I encountered Morgana, who meowed up at me, “There you are! Where’ve you been?” 

“I told you where I was going,” I replied. “Where have _you_ been?” I asked as I put my hands on my hips. 

“I made sure Kari didn’t tamper with the scene until Noise and Miaya showed up,” Morgana assured me. “Then I did some exploring. I… I saw the scene upstairs. I saw what happened to Lady Ann… Now more than ever, we need to get to the bottom of this, so I went back to the Palace, and the Treasure’s moved again, just like last time there was a murder. It’s not behind that barrier anymore, so I got Yusuke and our leader, and I—”

“Hold on,” I interrupted. “You found Ren? Where is he?” 

“He’s at the hideout,” Morgana told me. “We need to hurry and steal Kari’s Treasure before the trial. I have a feeling she knows more than she’s letting on.” 

“Is there time?” I asked. “If we miss the trial, we’ll be—”

“That’s why we need to hurry!” Morgana yowled at me. 

“Alright, fine, let’s make it quick,” I conceded. Morgana darted down the hall, and I followed him to the Ultimate Phantom Thief's lab, where we regrouped with Ren and Yusuke. For the sake of caution, I locked the lab's door behind us. 

“Ah, our gatekeeper has arrived at last,” Yusuke mused. 

“Let’s hurry.” Ren’s face looked much graver than usual. 

Without a word, I opened the Meta-Nav and pressed the eye at its center to transport us all to Kari’s Palace. As fast as we could, we darted along a route Mona had previously secured and ducked past every Shadow in our path until we came to a freight elevator. “I found this place during one of my previous explorations,” Mona explained. “I haven’t gone past here since it was where the distortion ended at the time, but now the distortion has expanded past this point.” 

“And the Treasure lies beyond?” Fox questioned. 

“Definitely,” Mona assured us. 

“Then let’s go,” Joker ordered as he stepped into the elevator. Fox, Mona, and I followed suit. As the elevator began its creaky ascent, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of eerie familiarity. When the lift finally squealed to a halt, a red velvet door opened before us, and we stepped out onto the familiar scene of the deck of the _S.S. Titanokuma-A._

“Are you sure the distortion has spread this far?” Fox inquired. “This looks identical to a location in the real world.” 

“I’m sure, and the Treasure’s here too,” Mona assured us. 

“Look at the water,” Joker prompted as he pointed toward the horizon. 

To my horror and amazement, the endless sea that continuously surrounded our boat was now a vast ocean of blood. “This is definitely a distortion,” I agreed. 

“I see you did come,” a feminine voice taunted us. I turned my attention back to the deck and saw Kari’s Shadow coming onto the deck from a different route. She was escorted by a dozen Shadows, four of which wore golden clothes and had red auras. “You saved me the trouble of looking for you.” 

“Mona, where is the Treasure?” Fox inquired. 

“She has it…” Mona shared. “I don’t see it on her, so it must be small.” 

“Then let’s hurry and get it from her,” I suggested as Odysseus suddenly materialized behind me. 

“First!” Mona shouted across the deck to the dark warden. “Tell us what you know about Lady Ann!” 

“Mona…” Joker started as he looked down at the cartoonish cat. 

“You… You’re hiding something, aren’t you?” Mona pressed. “If you have this Palace, you have to be! If you’re responsible for what happened to her, then… then I’ll—”

“How dare you!” Kari’s Shadow interrupted. “You would accuse me of associating with a crime?” The shadowy warden seemed offended at the suggestion. “You should be the ones to tell me. After all, you killed her!” 

“What?” Fox instinctively reached for something at his hip that wasn’t there. 

Joker held his hand in front of his teammate to stop him. “It seems there’s been a misunderstanding,” Joker parleyed. “We all want to know who’s responsible for what’s happened, so maybe we can work together.” 

“Joker! What are you doing? We have to steal her Treasure to make her confess!” Mona pleaded. 

“Her Shadow is more likely to be honest than she is,” Joker argued. “We need to take advantage of that to gather information for the trial.” 

“I have no intention of working with murderers!” Kari’s Shadow rejected. 

“Puhuhu!” a booming voice echoed through the air around us. “Did somebody say, ‘Murder’?” 

“It’s the Executioner!” one of Kari’s guards screamed. 

“Run before he punishes us!” a golden guard ordered in a panic. 

“Get back here, you ingrates!” Kari’s Shadow demanded in vain as her guards dispersed and fled below deck. 

As they retreated, a colossal figure rose from the sea of blood next to the vessel. The titanic creature was none other than Monokuma, but the gargantuan bear wore a long, dark cloak with a shadowy hood and carried an equally massive scythe whose blade resembled that of a guillotine instead of the typical curved shape. “It looks like you just voted each other as the blackened! You know what that means! You must all be punished!” 

“That is most certainly not how that works!” Fox protested. 

“It’s Kari’s distorted cognition of Monokuma!” Mona explained. “It doesn’t follow the same rules as the real one!” 

“Let’s give it everything we’ve got!” the cognitive Monokuma proclaimed. “It’s **_punishment time_ **!” 

As the ursine colossus raised its scythe into the air, I prepared to sprint out of the way. However, another equally gargantuan figure fell down from the sky behind me. It hovered over the bloody ocean on the other side of the ship. Its masculine figure was mostly humanoid, and it was covered in black-and-beige armor with gold accents on its gloves, boots, breastplate, hips, and shoulders. Two long, golden horns curved downward from its golden visor, which covered the top half of its midnight-blue face. A red sash pinned together by a five-pointed star was tied over its breastplate, and it carried a long, silver gun that resembled a pistol but was long enough in relation to the being to be a rifle. The being's most noticeable features were six pitch-black wings that emerged from its armored back. The wings on the right side of its body were leathery and fairly demonic in appearance while the wings on its left featured dark feathers like that of a crow. 

“What the hell is that?” I screamed reflexively as the gargantuan vessel beneath me shook in the waves of this new monster’s landing. 

“Pillage him, Satanael!” Joker called as he pointed his pistol at the cognitive Monokuma. The new monster, apparently called “Satanael,” pointed his gun at the cognitive Monokuma in sync, and the two simultaneously fired upon the ursine colossus. In less than a moment, a titanic bullet flew from Satanael’s gun through the head of the cognitive Monokuma, which fell backward into the bloody ocean and soon dissolved into dust as a result. 

“Don’t tell me that thing…” I started as I gawked at the colossal gunman, “…is your Persona.” 

“Yep,” Joker smirked as he holstered his pistol. 

“I thought Chi You was your Persona!” I wondered aloud. 

“That’s why he’s called Joker,” Mona explained with a smirk. “He’s our trump card. He has an ability called Wild Card that allows him to obtain and summon multiple Personas.” 

“You killed the Executioner…” Kari’s Shadow marveled as she fell to her knees. “Then, you’re not collaborating with him after all…” 

“We’re not,” Joker assured her as we approached the forlorn shadow. 

“I see.” Kari’s Shadow looked down at her hands for a moment before looking up at us. “I misjudged you. In that case, you may take this. Consider it a token of my apology.” She placed a small object in Joker’s hand, but I didn’t get a look at it. “I don’t know what happened to your Lady Ann,” Kari’s Shadow assured us, “but for all of our sakes, I hope you can find out. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to help you.” 

With those words, the vessel beneath us began to violently rumble. “The Palace is crumbling!” Mona exclaimed. “We have to go!” 

I turned toward the velvet doors through which we had arrived, but the elevator behind them suddenly collapsed and fell down its shaft. Biting my lip, I turned toward the stairs through which Kari’s Shadow and her entourage had arrived, but those stairs collapsed a moment later. “It’s no good,” I observed. “We’re trapped.” 

“Then we shall have to return from here!” Fox announced. “With haste, Ranger, let us depart!” 

Opening the Meta-Nav on my e-Handbook, I quickly pressed the eye in the middle of the screen. A synthetic voice said, “Returning to real world. Thank you for your hard work.” Its gratitude could barely be heard over the rumbling of the ship beneath us, but the distorted reality around us was shortly replaced by the real-world deck of the _S.S. Titanokuma-A._

The floor beneath us, however, was slightly lower than it was in the cognitive world, and Ren, Yusuke, and I all fell onto the ground as Morgana darted into Ren’s bag. “Where the fuck’d you come from?” a familiar voice asked as Noise loomed over us. Not just him, the entire remainder of our class all stood around the velvet door leading to the trial grounds. “I didn’t see you come up the stairs. You fall from the fuckin’ sky or some shit?” the Ultimate Mathematician inquired. I could only offer an awkward chuckle as a reply. 

“That was a spectacular landing if so!” Haruki laughed. “I’ll have to remember that one for my next performance.”

“Anyway, everyone’s finally here,” Reiko said. “We should go. Monokuma warned us not to keep him waiting.” 

“We were worried we’d have to start the trial without you,” Usami stated on Miaya’s behalf. 

Ren, Yusuke, and I stood up and brushed ourselves off as the others stepped through the doors to the elevator. Yusuke moved ahead, but Ren hung back for a moment to hand me something. “It’s the Treasure,” he explained under his breath. “I think you should have it.” 

As Ren walked forward, I lagged behind for a moment to gaze down at Lucille’s hairpin. _Morgana said the Treasure was the source of the Palace ruler’s distorted cognition… Did this hairpin really cause… all of that?_

I followed my classmates into the elevator, where we stood in silence as the lift descended. When we reached the trial grounds, we solemnly stepped to our respective podiums. The number of deceased had more than doubled since our last trial, and four new signs featuring crossed out pictures of Emiko, Lucille, Ann, and Charlotte proved it. Since Hachise had never been assigned a seat on our trial ground to begin with, I was unsurprised by the lack of sign indicating her death.

“Let’s begin with a basic explanation of the class trial,” Monokuma announced from his position over the grounds. “Your votes will determine the results. If you can figure out ‘whodunnit,’ only the blackened will receive punishment, but if you pick the wrong one… then I’ll punish everyone _besides_ the blackened, and the one that deceived everyone else will graduate!”

My mind was still reeling from the recent trip to the Metaverse, and trying to wrap my head around all four of today’s deaths wasn’t doing me any favors either. My head was practically spinning, and the whole trial ground seemed to spin alongside it. 

Noise: The case this time is a fuckin’ catastrophe. 

Reiko: I still can’t believe all of them are gone… 

Usami: We watched two of them perform just yesterday… 

Haruki: Believe it or not, it happened.

Yusuke: We shall have ample time to mourn after the blackened is uncovered. 

Usami: Well, we do have some idea of who the blackened might be. 

Takamaru: What do you mean by that? 

Usami: Normally, the rules prevent anyone from killing more than two people, but this time **there are four victims**. 

Usami: That means **the blackened must be Monokuma’s agent** , the attacker! 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Usami: Huh? But nobody else can kill four people. 

Gale: Four people died today, yes, but that doesn’t mean all four of them were _killed_. From the evidence, it looks like some of them died from the poison in their bangles. 

Yusuke: I assume you are referring to Lucille and Charlotte. 

Noise: For the number of deceased d and the number of killed k, 0 < k ≤ d = 4. 

Reiko: Then **this trial is for the killed** , not the deceased. 

Haruki: If Lucille and Charlotte died from the poison, the killed students are Ann and Hachise. 

Noise: Ergo, the number of blackened b exists such that 1 ≤ b ≤ 2. 

Takamaru: You’re saying that **one person could have killed both of them** , or each of them could have been killed by a different person. 

Reiko: Monokuma, what happens if there’s more than one blackened? Do we have to uncover both of them?

Monokuma: Hmm, let me think. I’d say, “If two different murders by two different murderers occur at the same time, only the one whose victim was found first will be the blackened.” 

Ren: Then **this trial is for the murder of Ann Takamaki**. 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Haruki: What do you mean? Based on what Reiko told me, I’m fairly certain I found Ann’s body while you were still fumbling with the door to the Ultimate Forensic Criminalist's lab. 

Gale: You might have technically found Ann’s body first, but the body discovery announcement only plays if three or more people discover the body. Since that announcement is what initiates a class trial, I think this trial would be for whosever announcement played first. 

Monokuma: Meowth! That’s right! 

Takamaru: Oh yeah, the second announcement played when Miaya, Noise, and I found Ann and Charlotte. The first announcement is what got us out of our rooms in the first place. 

Haruki: Ah, my apologies, heh-heh, I wasn’t there for either body discovery announcement, so I wasn’t sure which played first. 

Noise: Then we need to figure out who fucked up Hachise. 

Reiko: We may as well start with everyone’s alibis. We know **Hachise was killed between 10:16 and 10:32 this morning**. 

Takamaru: Why would we need alibis? Let’s just use Pres’s stalkerish map data. 

Kari: …

Usami: That’s a great idea! **That should clear everything up**!

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Yusuke: Was the president not gathering data for this exact situation? 

Gale: Kari doesn’t have any data after 10:04 this morning. She apparently had to leave her lab to use the bathroom. 

Haruki: Then let’s begin with what we do know! Where was everyone at 10:04 this morning? 

Noise: According to the data, **Miaya and I were in Miaya’s room**. 

Noise: Kari was, of course, in the Ultimate Forensic Criminalist's lab. 

Noise: The primary victim, Hachise, was in the infirmary. 

Noise: The secondary victim, Ann, was in the hallway on the 2nd floor. 

Noise: The 3rd deceased, Charlotte, was on the deck of the ship. 

Noise: The final deceased, Lucille, was in the backstage portion of the Ultimate Thespian's lab. 

Noise: Reiko and Takamaru were in Takamaru’s room. 

Noise: Haruki was in his own room. 

Noise: Ren was in the hallway on the 3rd floor. 

Noise: And Gale and Yusuke were not present on the map. 

Haruki: Disappearing from the map again, are we? That means **you’re our prime suspects**! 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Haruki: Oh? Then you have an alibi? Do tell! 

Gale: Yusuke and I were together in the Ultimate Phantom Thief's lab the entire time. As you know, something about that room causes us to disappear from the map, but we can offer each other’s alibis. We were together from before we vanished from the map until Hachise’s body was discovered. 

Yusuke: Gale is correct. We did not part ways until the investigation began. 

Noise: Miaya and I were also together from Kari’s last recorded time until the body discovery announcements played. 

Usami: I, uh, what’s the word? I “corroborate” that claim! 

Reiko: Takamaru and I were together at first, but I left the room to get him some medicine from the infirmary. I passed Ann on my way downstairs, but I didn’t see anyone else until I left the infirmary. 

Yusuke: That is when **you saw Gale and myself** outside Kari’s Ultimate Research Lab, correct? 

Reiko: Yeah, that’s right. 

Haruki: Ha! That’s a pretty sorry excuse for an alibi. 

Usami: Takamaru, do you know when Reiko left your room? 

Takamaru: No, I was resting. **I was asleep** at that point. 

Noise: Then **Reiko ain’t got an alibi** after all. 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Noise: How would you know? You were off-map with pretty boy over here the whole time. 

Gale: Reiko told me she came straight to the infirmary from Takamaru’s room. That means she couldn’t have stopped by the Ultimate Forensic Criminalist's lab where Hachise’s body was found. 

Noise: Uh, news flash, people can do this crazy new thing called “lying.” You ever heard of it? 

Reiko: Wait. No, I couldn’t have lied! **The body discovery announcement hadn’t played yet**. My forbidden action was “telling a lie.” 

Takamaru: Now that part I can confirm. **She showed me earlier in the day**. 

Usami: Then Reiko really does have an alibi! 

Haruki: Takamaru, on the other hand, can’t prove he was asleep in his room that whole time. 

Takamaru: With all the people in the halls, I’m pretty sure someone would have seen me if I had gone all the way down to Kari’s lab and then come back to my room in time for the announcements. 

Noise: “Pretty sure” isn’t a fuckin’ alibi. 

Takamaru: Y’know, I’m getting pretty goddamn tired of not having an alibi. I’m telling you guys **I was in my room the whole time**! 

**_Gale: I agree with that!_ **

Yusuke: Do you have evidence that supports Takamaru’s claim as well?

Gale: Actually, I do. Reiko, was Takamaru in the room when you left?

Reiko: He was. 

Gale: Then he has an alibi at least from 10:04 to the time Reiko left his room. 

Haruki: That’s hardly an alibi for the crimes since we don’t know what time Reiko left.

Gale: I don’t think that matters. Takamaru was in his room when Reiko left, and Noise and Miaya saw him leave his room after the first body discovery announcement. 

Noise: Can confirm. 

Gale: That means if Takamaru left his room after Reiko, he would’ve had to come back, but I don’t think he could. 

Noise: How’s that? 

Gale: Miaya and I found his e-Handbook in the infirmary during the investigation. If he’d left while Reiko was gone, there would’ve been no one to unlock his room from the inside, and he wouldn’t have been able to get back in without his handbook. 

Takamaru: How’d my handbook end up in the infirmary? 

Reiko: Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry! I must have taken Takamaru’s handbook with me when I left by mistake and then forgotten it in the infirmary while I was looking for medicine! 

Usami: Hold on! Doesn’t that violate the rules? 

Monokuma: Well, **he didn’t technically “loan” her his handbook** because he was unconscious. 

Monokuma: In reality, Reiko stole it. I wasn’t exactly happy about it, but I thought she might be planning to murder him, so I let it slide this time. 

Takamaru: Sweetie! Please be more careful! **I don’t want to get shish-kebabbed** because you grabbed the wrong handbook by mistake! 

Reiko: It was dark, okay! 

Yusuke: If Takamaru could not reenter his room after leaving, and he only left the room at the time of the first announcement, then **his alibi holds** as well. 

Noise: That brings our total number of alibis to 6. The 3 remaining are the tyrannical overlord, the so-called Phantom Thief, and the psychotic clown. Why am I not surprised? 

Haruki: Let us not forsake the dearly departed! **Any of the deceased could have murdered Hachise** as well! 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Gale: There is one deceased who couldn’t have murdered Hachise, and that’s Hachise herself. 

**_Noise: So zetta slow!_ **

Noise’s immediate counter to my own argument threw me off. I thought my claim was obvious, but the mathematician apparently disagreed. 

Noise: Your statement is logically inverted. 

Noise: Have you forgotten about the “locked-room” scenario? 

Noise: Kari left her key in her lab when she went to the bathroom. 

Noise: We proved it when we found the key in her drawer after she got back. 

Noise: However, the door to the lab was locked when you and Yusuke tried to open it. 

Noise: If the key was in the room, that door could only have been locked from the inside. 

Noise: That means the person who was in the room when it was locked is the one who locked it!

Gale: The only person in that room was Hachise. 

Gale: She couldn’t have even locked the door after sustaining those kinds of injuries. 

Gale: Are you suggesting she locked herself in the room and then did all of that to herself? 

Noise: I know it sounds fuckin’ crazy! 

Noise: But when you’ve eliminated the impossible, whatever remains has to be the truth! 

Noise: Hachise was in the infirmary before she died, right? 

Noise: **She could’ve doped herself up** to endure the pain and then torn herself apart! 

Noise: She had to have been off the rocker after gettin’ all her classmates killed! 

Noise: This ain’t about what makes sense. **It’s about what’s logically possible**! 

Noise: **Hachise had to have killed herself**! 

**_Gale: I’ll slice through that argument!_ **

Noise: There you go with that slicing shit again! 

Gale: Just hear me out. You’re talking about what’s possible. I’m saying it’s physically impossible for Hachise to have left herself in the state we found her in. She was tied up with that wire, but the bones in her arms and hands were broken. 

Noise: Oh, I see what you’re sayin’ now. It’s a paradox. 

Usami: Um, how can it be a paradox if that’s how we found her?

Noise: Well, now that I think of it, the paradox is something like this: If Hachise’s arms and hands are broken, she can’t tie herself to the chair. However, if she’s tied to the chair, she’s got no way to break her arms and hands. 

Yusuke: At the very least, if she used some kind of tool or weapon to break them, she would have no way to hide such a thing since she was bound, and we did not find anything like that near her. 

Takamaru: She didn’t fall on them either since the chair was upright. 

Noise: Alright, fine, I’ll rethink this whole locked-room bullshit. 

Reiko: I’d like to talk more about this wire that tied her up. It’s the closest thing we have to a murder weapon. 

Yusuke: I thought **Kari had locked everything of this sort in her room**. 

Kari: … 

Reiko: It came from the Ultimate Circus Performer's lab. It’s the tightwire from last night’s show.

Haruki: **I hid it from Kari** so we could use it in the performance. 

Usami: Kari confiscated it after the show last night. Since **her dorm room was sealed** , she locked it in her lab; she thought it’d be safest there. 

Takamaru: That makes sense. If she kept her lab locked when she wasn’t there, she could supervise anyone who entered the lab and keep them away from the tightwire. 

 Noise: Then it stands to reason that anyone who could’ve entered her lab could’ve gotten the tightwire, and since we know the killer entered the lab, that doesn’t help us. 

Reiko: Would the killer needed to have known the tightwire was in the lab?

Takamaru: Not really, **Hachise’s eyelids were taped open**. The killer was probably just using whatever they found lying around the lab for torture. 

Yusuke: The killer could simply have stumbled upon the tightwire by coincidence then. 

Usami: I still can’t believe anyone in our class would do something so horrible. 

Noise: This fuckin’ sucks. We’ve gone over alibis and the murder weapon, and we still have 6 suspects, 1/2 of whom we can’t even question cuz they’re fuckin’ dead! 

Reiko: Then **we’re seriously all out of leads**? 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Haruki: O great Ultimate Adventurer, grace us with thy knowledge of contradiction! 

Gale: There’s one massive lead we’ve been overlooking so far. I’m talking about the murder of Ann Takamaki. 

Takamaru: Sure, but the blackened is the person who killed Hachise, right? 

Gale: That’s true, but the cases might still be related. Besides, we haven’t ruled out the possibility that they were killed by the same person, and if all else fails, if we can prove they weren’t killed by the same person and figure out who killed Ann…

Noise: Then there’s 1 less suspect for the murder of Hachise Kurotsuki. 

Yusuke: Helpful or not, I for one would like to get to the bottom of Ann’s murder. 

Ren: Agreed. 

Reiko: Then we’re in agreement. Let’s discuss the murder of Ann Takamaki. 

Takamaru: Like Hachise, she was killed sometime between 10:16 and 10:32. 

Noise: Apparent cause of death was the slash to her throat. 

Haruki: Her body was found on the floor of her room next to that of the beloved Charlotte. 

Ren: **Charlotte died** from performing her forbidden action. 

Yusuke: Charlotte’s forbidden action was showing or telling someone her forbidden action. 

Noise: See! I told you **there could be a recursive 1**! 

Yusuke: Likewise, Ann’s forbidden action was discovering a dead body. 

Haruki: Then we can be fairly certain that Ann died before Charlotte! 

Takamaru: Yeah, if Ann had gone into her room and found Charlotte’s body, she would have been killed by the poison, not the wound. 

Usami: I don’t know. **Someone could have moved Charlotte’s body** after Ann was killed. 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Yusuke: Ah, yes, I believe I know what you mean. 

Gale: Charlotte’s body is pretty heavy, no offense. Anyone would have a pretty tough time moving it by themselves. 

Haruki: There is, however, the possibility of an accomplice. 

Gale: Even so, the body was found in Ann’s room, but we found Ann’s e-Handbook on the floor inside the room. If Ann and her handbook were both in the room, then its door would have closed and locked automatically. We know the door wasn’t held open because there were other people in the dormitory, and no one heard the alarm go off. 

Noise: Then in order to move Charlotte’s body into the room, either Ann unlocked her own door from the inside, or someone on the outside broke down the door. 

Yusuke: Considering the state of the door, I would say the latter is more likely. 

Gale: Exactly, but the only person strong enough to break down that door is Charlotte. 

Takamaru: I’m not sure I buy your first argument, but if only Charlotte could break down that door, then she had to be alive at the time the door broke. 

Usami: But why would Charlotte break the door? She’d be punished for breaking the rules. 

Reiko: Is it possible she was injected with the poison from her bangle as punishment? 

Monokuma: Nope! Students who break the rules will be punished, but I’d use a different form of punishment. The poison is reserved exclusively for students who perform their forbidden actions! 

Yusuke: Charlotte was, however, killed by the poison, not a punishment for breaking the door. 

Noise: Argh, this doesn’t make any goddamn sense! 

Reiko: If Charlotte knew she would be punished for breaking the door, but she still broke it, and she was also killed by the poison in her bangle, I can only think of one explanation. 

Gale: **Charlotte was already being poisoned** when she broke down the door. At that point, she had nothing to lose. 

Takamaru: What? Is that even possible? 

Gale: The poison is fast-acting but probably not instantaneous. If she were close enough to Ann’s room when she performed her forbidden action, she may have had time to break down the door before her death. 

Yusuke: I see. Then, if she succumbed to the poison in Ann’s room shortly after breaking down the door, that would explain why we found her body there. 

Gale: Yes, I’m still not sure why, though, and the fact remains that Ann never saw Charlotte’s body in her room, or she would have been poisoned for performing her own forbidden action. 

**_Haruki: Allow me to set the stage!_ **

Haruki: Picture this. Ann and Charlotte are having a conversation in the dormitory hallway. 

Haruki: By intent or accident, Ann has Charlotte reveal to her the recursive forbidden action! 

Haruki: The dreadful poison begins to course through the veins of the fair Charlotte! 

Haruki: Ann flees to her room, for if she witnesses Charlotte’s final farewell… 

Haruki: She will in turn perform her very own forbidden action and perish alongside the maiden! 

Gale: That does make some degree of sense… 

Gale: But Ann would be trapping herself in her room until the body was moved. 

Gale: If she left and saw Charlotte’s body in the hallway, she’d still be poisoned. 

Haruki: Thou speaketh as though the maiden in question had carefully planned her move! 

Haruki: Nay, this was an act of desperation! 

Haruki: However, it was far from the most desperate act of this fateful scene! 

Haruki: The fair Charlotte must have realized her demise was imminent! 

Haruki: In her closing act, **she sought revenge** against the _femme fatale_ , the victim in question! 

Haruki: **She burst through Ann’s feeble threshold** , and she closed in on the victim! 

Haruki: Not knowing Ann would perish from the mere sight of her corpse…

Haruki: Charlotte committed this most heinous act herself, and **she slew the** **_femme fatale_ **! 

**_Gale: I’ll slice through that argument!_ **

Usami: Yeah, Charlotte would never do such a thing! 

Gale: I also don’t think Charlotte would kill Ann, even in that situation, but more importantly, I don’t think she could. If Charlotte were the killer, how do we explain what’s missing from the scene? 

Ren: The murder weapon. 

Gale: That’s right. Ann was killed by a slash to the throat, but as far as I know, there were no sharp objects found in the room. If Charlotte killed Ann as she was dying, she couldn’t have disposed of the weapon. 

Noise: It’s also tough to imagine Ann was killed afterward. If Charlotte broke in after Ann while the former was poisoned, Ann would’ve likely been poisoned too as soon as Charlotte died. 

Reiko: Then Ann must have died either as Charlotte broke in or beforehand. 

Haruki: If Ann truly was dead before Charlotte broke in, then to whom did Charlotte tell her forbidden action, and if the answer is not Ann, then why would she break into Ann’s room? 

Gale: No, you’re right. This whole scenario still doesn’t add up. There are too many contradictions. I’m starting to think we made a mistake somewhere in our line of reasoning. 

Usami: Where could we have made a mistake? 

Gale: I think the mistake we made is **Charlotte’s forbidden action**. 

Yusuke: Was that not what the bangle found next to her body said? 

Gale: Yes, that’s why we assumed it was hers, but we never actually saw that on her wrist. 

Takamaru: If that wasn’t her forbidden action, then what was? 

Gale: I think her forbidden action must have been **discovering a dead body**. 

Noise: Hold the fuck up! You’re saying we got their forbidden actions switched? 

Gale: Their bodies were pretty close together. If Charlotte was still barely clinging to life when the bangles came off, hers could have ended up next to Ann’s body. 

Usami: Then Charlotte broke into Ann’s room and died because she discovered the body? 

Reiko: No, we already established Charlotte was poisoned before she broke down the door. 

Gale: If I’m right, then Charlotte most likely witnessed Ann’s murder. 

Haruki: That would mean Ann was murdered in the hallway outside her room. 

Takamaru: If Ann was killed in the hallway, why did we find her in her room? 

Usami: I thought only Ann could open the door to her room! 

Gale: No, the person who unlocked the door to Ann’s room was **Ann’s killer** ** _._ **

Reiko: Right! Just like Takamaru didn’t loan me his handbook, Ann couldn’t loan the killer her handbook since she was dead, so the killer could take her handbook and unlock her door! 

Yusuke: The killer could have moved the body into Ann’s room, and the door would have locked Ann inside along with her handbook. 

Haruki: Just like the president locked away all of that contraband! 

Kari: … 

Noise: It’s the same shit that almost happened in Hifumi’s murder. 

Usami: If her body was locked in that room with the key, we’d never have found it! 

Gale: That means the person who killed Ann is most likely **the attacker**. 

Noise: Right! That fucker’s the only 1 who’d benefit from locking away the body! 

Reiko: No body discovery announcement meant they could continue killing as many students as they wanted without a trial. 

Haruki: If that’s true, their plan obviously failed. We did discover the body, after all! 

Gale: The person we have to thank for that is **Charlotte**. If she saw this happening, it must have triggered the poison from her bangle. 

Reiko: That explains the motive for the broken door too! 

Usami: She must’ve used the last of her strength to break Ann’s door so we’d find the body… 

Takamaru: This sounds heroic and all, but part of it still seems fishy. 

Haruki: Indeed, if Ann were really murdered in the hallway as you suggest, wouldn’t we have found _beaucoup_ bloodstains on the ground? 

Yusuke: Perhaps **the killer** **washed away the bloodstains**. 

Noise: The floor wasn’t exactly wet either, genius. 

Usami: Or maybe **we’re wrong** again, and Ann was killed in her room after all… 

Takamaru: Argh! I don’t want to start over again! 

Reiko: Maybe **the attacker used something to catch the blood**. 

**_Gale: I agree with that!_ **

Yusuke: We found no such thing at the scene of the crime, however. 

Gale: That’s true, but I’m pretty sure the attacker didn’t wash away the stains. There was a thin trail of blood leading from the hallway to the crime scene. 

Haruki: Ah, such must have come from Charlotte’s eye as she made her valiant trek to the door! 

Noise: The poison did cause bleeding from the victim’s left eye. 

Gale: If the attacker had washed away the blood from Ann’s injury, they would have washed the trail Charlotte left behind as well, so it’s more likely they had prepared some kind of tarp to catch the blood and then disposed of it. 

Reiko: I totally called it! 

Takamaru: Then where did the killer get the tarp? 

Usami: Could it have come from the Ultimate Circus Performer's lab? 

Haruki: There was most certainly no such thing in my lab! 

A wave of thoughts and possibilities surged through my mind. Piece by piece, letter by letter, I considered what the attacker could have used as a tarp to catch the blood from Ann’s wound. 

Gale: That may be true, but the attacker could have used something else. For example, they may have used a **bedsheet**. 

Reiko: True, that’s something anyone could have access to. 

Yusuke: Regardless, the attacker would still need to dispose of it. 

Gale: That’s easy too. Remember the crime took place in the dormitory hallway. The attacker could’ve quickly thrown it in their own room before leaving the scene of the crime. 

Takamaru: That reminds me of something else that’s bothering me. If **Charlotte saw the attacker kill Ann** , wouldn’t the attacker have seen Charlotte break down the door? 

Reiko: Right, we also know they had the weapon used to kill Ann. Why didn’t they stop her? 

Noise: If you ask me, that motherfucker must’ve fled the scene. Charlotte could’ve fucked any of us up if she’d put her mind to it. 

Yusuke: True, if they saw the poison take effect, all they had to do was flee and let Charlotte die. 

Usami: They must not have known what Charlotte’s forbidden action was, so they didn’t know it would incriminate them. 

Takamaru: Then **the attacker was caught in the act** , panicked, and fled the scene? 

Reiko: That seems the most likely. I for one wouldn’t have stayed near Charlotte after she’d seen me murder one of her friends. 

Yusuke: Then why did the attacker not simply flee to their room? 

Noise: We’ve already established **Charlotte can break down those doors** if she’s desperate. Hiding in their own room wouldn’t have saved their ass. 

Reiko: On top of that, if someone had found the attacker in their room, they might also spot the hidden evidence. 

Haruki: The whole stunt was still quite bold of them. Kari may have been away from her lab the whole time, but **the attacker couldn’t have known that**. 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Usami: Was the attacker spying on Kari somehow? 

Haruki: Or perhaps you’re suggesting Kari herself is the attacker! 

Kari: …

Gale: No, on the contrary, there’s evidence suggesting Kari really was in the bathroom that whole time. Isn’t that right, Miaya? 

Usami: Oh! You must mean the laxatives that went missing from the infirmary. 

Reiko: Pres, did you eat or drink anything besides the coffee Miaya brought you this morning? 

Kari: No…

Usami: Wait! Hold on! I didn’t drug Kari! 

Noise: Relax! You still got an alibi, remember? 

Takamaru: Then somebody slipped laxatives into the coffee Miaya brought Kari to get her away from the map. 

Yusuke: I believe we can safely assume that person was the attacker, who needed Kari away from the map in order to commit their crime. 

Reiko: Then let’s reiterate what we know about the crime from the beginning. 

Takamaru: First, **the attacker slipped laxatives** into Kari’s coffee. 

Yusuke: Then, **they laid down a bedsheet** or similar tarp as a trap for their victim. 

Haruki: The fair Ann fell into their wretched trap, and **they killed her** on the spot! 

Usami: The attacker took Ann’s e-Handbook and tried to lock Ann’s body in her room, but **Charlotte caught them** in the act. 

Noise: Then **the attacker pussied out** and bolted. 

Reiko: If anyone saw them running, **they could just say they’d found Charlotte’s body**.

**_Gale: I agree with that!_ **

Reiko: I’m glad we’re all on the same page. 

Gale: No, you’re onto something else there. If the attacker fled the scene, they might not know Charlotte had broken into Ann’s room. They wouldn’t want us to find Ann’s body, so they’d just say they’d found Charlotte’s body in the hallway. Since Charlotte was poisoned, there wouldn’t be a body discovery announcement for her, and the attacker wouldn’t need to worry about being put on trial. 

Reiko: Hold on. If that’s true, then… 

Gale: Then I think I know who Ann’s killer is. 

_That’s right. They didn’t know it at the time, but the attacker already gave themselves away!_

Gale: **Haruki Haruharu** , you’re the attacker, aren’t you? 

Ren: What? 

Haruki: How dare you! Such a baseless accusation will be a stain on my career as a performer! 

Gale: It’s not baseless. You ran into us when we were investigating Hachise’s body, and you told me that you found a body, not two bodies, one body. You weren’t talking about the crime scene that we found. You thought Charlotte’s body would be alone in the dormitory hallway! 

Haruki: Such a slip of the tongue is merely a trifle! 

Reiko: Haruki, you’re the Ultimate Circus Performer. You don’t have “slips of the tongue.”

Yusuke: That would also explain why you came running straight to Kari’s lab. 

Gale: Right, you were trying to make sure Kari hadn’t returned to her lab yet. 

Usami: Haruki, this sounds crazy. You wouldn’t really kill Ann, would you? 

Haruki: …

Noise: What’s wrong? You finally run out of shit to say? 

Haruki: Alas, I believe this act has drawn to a close. Very well, I admit defeat. ‘Twas indeed I who felled the fair maiden! 

Yusuke: Murderer! 

Ren: Explain yourself! 

Haruki: It’s quite simple really. I killed Ann because I am, in fact, the attacker. 

Haruki held up a detached bangle and displayed its red text for all of us to see: “PASSING THE NIGHTTIME ANNOUNCEMENT WITHOUT HAVING KILLED SOMEONE THAT DAY.” 

Haruki: To kill or to be killed! That was the question. 

Takamaru: Great, now he’s misquoting Shakespeare. 

Haruki: Of course, I could not come forward about such a forbidden action. Kari would most certainly have sacrificed me for the sake of the class. 

Kari: …

Usami: You had plenty of time before the nighttime announcement! Why did you immediately start planning to kill someone? 

Haruki: You would have had me wait until the last minute and then perish because an unforeseen circumstance sent my plan awry? 

Yusuke: Your excuses are meaningless! I cannot forgive you. I can never, ever forgive you! 

Haruki: You can forgive or forget, but sticks and stones won’t break my bones! 

Takamaru: Enough with the adages! 

Reiko: We’ll decide how to handle Haruki later. Right now, we need to figure out who killed Hachise. Otherwise, we all die, and Charlotte’s sacrifice will have been for nothing. 

Haruki: Fairest Reiko! I knew I could count on thee to come to _mon_ aid in such a time! 

Reiko: Don’t you fucking speak to me. As a matter of fact, shut up for the rest of the trial. I’m sick and tired of your lies. 

Haruki: Forgive me, but I’m afraid **I cannot comply** with that request, for there is something of the utmost importance I must bring to the attention of the crowd! 

Noise: Oh really? What the hell could you possibly have to add to this? 

Haruki: You see, Noisy Boy, **I am not the blackened**. In fact, I can’t be the blackened. 

Noise: The fuck’d you just call me? 

Haruki: Since I am the attacker who killed poor Ann and caused the tragic demise of Charlotte, I could not have killed Hachise. 

Takamaru: Last I checked, **you didn’t have an alibi** for either murder.

Haruki: I’m afraid one is the other’s alibi. To have killed Ann as you all claim and as I have admitted, I must have lain in wait in my room from 10:04 to the time of Ann’s death. 

Reiko: Then, after Ann’s death, **you ran straight to Kari’s lab** , where you found us. 

Haruki: Indeed, therefore, I could not have gone to Kari’s lab between 10:16 and the time of the announcements, nor could I be the blackened responsible for murdering Hachise! 

Usami: That means **there really are two murderers**! 

Takamaru: On top of that, the blackened isn’t the attacker after all. 

Noise: That’s great and all, but **we still have 5 suspects**! 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Takamaru: Okay, Haruki has an “alibi” now, but what about the others? 

Gale: I think we can safely assume Charlotte didn’t kill Hachise. If she was on the deck and then witnessed Ann’s murder, it would make more sense if Charlotte came straight to the dormitory from the deck and died there. 

Usami: I agree. I can’t believe she would do that to Hachise and then use her dying breath to help us find Ann’s body. 

Takamaru: That quick a shift would mean **she had a split personality**. 

Reiko: Charlotte definitely didn’t have a split personality. 

Yusuke: Morbid as it is, Haruki’s confession also offers merit to Kari’s claim that she was in the restroom since **he admitted to slipping laxatives** into her coffee. 

Kari: … 

Haruki: Yep-yep! I sure did! 

Reiko: Didn’t I tell you to stop talking? 

Noise: Alright, then **we’ve divided our list of suspects by 2** again, and our new quotient is 3. 

Haruki: Those suspects are Lucille, Ren, and Ann! 

Yusuke: You would dare accuse her of such a crime after murdering her! 

Reiko: I hate to admit it, but it’s theoretically possible she was killed on her way back to her room after killing Hachise. 

Yusuke: I refuse to listen to something so groundless! 

Noise: Either way, now **2/3 of our suspects are dead**. 

Takamaru: Hey, Monokuma, can a dead person really be the blackened? 

Monokuma: Well, I wouldn’t have anyone to execute, so it’d be a total bummer, but it’s definitely possible. A student could murder somebody and then die before the trial, after all! 

**_Noise: I just figured it out!_ **

Usami: Huh? Do you know who the blackened is? 

Noise: Not that! I figured out the locked-room scenario! 

Haruki: Ooh! Do tell! 

Noise: Shut up, clown! I ain’t talkin’ to you! 

Reiko: Noise, please tell us what you figured out. 

Noise: Alright, the problem with the locked room is that the door to Kari’s lab couldn’t be locked from the outside without the key, which we found locked inside the room. 

Takamaru: We established that already. 

Noise: Here’s the thing, though! That assumes the killer exited the lab through that same door and then locked the door behind them, but there might be another way out! 

Usami: Are you talking about the backdoor? It’s locked by a scanner, and none of our handbooks open it! 

Noise: You’re absolutely right! None of _our_ handbooks open it! Kari made sure of that on the day we discovered the lab, but someone else’s handbook might work! 

_Wait. If our handbooks don’t open it, then he can only mean…_

Gale: You’re talking about **Hachise Kurotsuki** , aren’t you? 

Noise: That’s right! She wasn’t there on the day we discovered the lab, so we never tested if her handbook could open the door! 

Reiko: Pres, is that true?

Kari: **That’s correct** … 

Noise: That means the killer could have murdered Hachise and used her handbook to open the backdoor to the lab, just like that fuckin’ scumbag did with Ann’s handbook! 

Haruki: _Le_ gasp! **Your words cut deeper** than the Mariana Trench! 

Usami: What happened to sticks and stones? 

Reiko: It’s true that **no one found Hachise’s handbook** at the scene. 

Takamaru: Still, whatever’s behind that backdoor isn’t even on the map. Is it really another exit? 

Noise: That’s the other thing that got me thinkin’! If what’s past that door ain’t on the map, then someone who went through the door might not be on the map either! 

Haruki: That would draw suspicion back to those who vanished from the map! 

Yusuke: Gale and I already provided each other’s alibis, and **we were the only ones off the map**. 

**_Noise: That’s fuckin’ wrong!_ **

Haruki: My oh my, he’s starting to sound like Gale. 

Noise: Yusuke! You and Gale were off the map at 10:04, but we have no fuckin’ clue who was off the map between then and the body discovery announcements! 

Haruki: Besides this supposed backdoor, the only other way we know to get off the map is through the Ultimate Phantom Thief's lab! 

Reiko: Then is the backdoor to Kari’s lab connected to the Ultimate Phantom Thief's lab? 

Gale: That still doesn’t add up. I locked that lab’s door from the inside when Yusuke and I entered.

Usami: I checked just before the trial while I was investigating, and the door to the Ultimate Phantom Thief's lab was still locked! 

Noise: Then that’s the nail on the fuckin’ coffin! If somebody left Kari’s lab through the backdoor and came out through the Ren's lab, they must’ve locked the door behind them! 

Yusuke: That is absurd. Like Kari’s lab, the Ultimate Phantom Thief's lab only has one key, and you need the key to lock the door from the outside. 

Noise: Then the person who has the key is Hachise’s killer!

Ren: … 

Yusuke: Hold it! Are you accusing him of torturing Hachise to death? 

Reiko: I’m still not sure about this. If Yusuke and Gale were off the map too, wouldn’t the killer have passed them on their way out of the Ultimate Phantom Thief's lab? 

Gale: Not… necessarily… 

Haruki: Well, Mr. Amamiya, what do you have to say for yourself? 

Ren: I didn’t do it. 

Noise: Then prove it! You’re the only livin’ person left without an alibi. 

Ren: My lab doesn’t connect to Kari’s. 

Noise: Then it’s about fuckin’ time you speak up for a change and tell us how the actual fuck your lab lets you disappear from the goddamn map! 

Ren: …

Yusuke: … 

Gale: … 

Ren, Yusuke, and I all seemed unsure of how to answer. To the room’s collective surprise, however, we heard the elevator connecting to the deck of the ship grind to a halt. Its heavy doors slowly opened, and a young girl stepped into the trial ground. Her brunette hair had been shaved off, and a medical eyepatch covered her left eye. Most noticeably, her left hand was completely missing, and bloody bandages covered the end of her forearm where her wrist used to be. She looked completely different, but this girl was unmistakably Hachise Kurotsuki. 

The Ultimate Survivor steadily carried herself to the circle of podiums. Slowly but surely, she stepped onto the podium where Lucille once stood. With her remaining hand, Hachise grabbed the sign featuring Lucille’s portrait and knocked it out of her way. The picture frame shattered when it hit the ground, and Hachise took her new place on the trial grounds. A smile widened across her face to expose her braced teeth, and she raised her middle finger toward Monokuma with an eerie chuckle. 

Hachise: I lived, bitch. 

Monokuma: …

Usami: H-Hachise…

Takamaru: You’re alive! 

Kari: … 

Noise: What the fuck is goin’ on? No one could’ve survived those injuries! 

Reiko: On top of that, her hand is gone…

Haruki: Her bones seem perfectly intact, and she still has at least one of her eyes. 

Hachise: I guess you guys found my decoy after all. 

Ren: Decoy?

Usami: Then the body we found was a fake! 

Hachise: Oh no, it was very real. In fact, it belonged to someone you know. I’ll give you a guess. 

Gale: The body we found must’ve belonged to **Kagami Jushichi**. 

Haruki: That would explain the macabre state of the scene. 

Noise: Where the hell did you get that? 

Hachise: C’mon now. C’mon. C’mon… You guys should be able to figure that out just by process of elimination. 

Gale: The only place I can think of is **past the backdoor of Kari’s lab**. 

Hachise: Bingo! That place is a sort of morgue, perfect for the Ultimate Forensic Criminalist's lab! 

Reiko: Then, you messed with Kagami’s body to make it look like yours? 

Hachise: Mm-hmm! I had to shave my hair and leave it nearby so you wouldn’t wonder why the body’s hair was missing. Then I took out zir eyes so you wouldn’t notice we had different eye colors. 

Yusuke: She is… rather calm about this. 

Hachise: Heh-heh-heh, that’s such a funny thing to say, Yuki. 

Noise: I fuckin’ told you she was off her rocker. 

Usami: H-Hachise, what happened to your arm? 

Hachise: Oh, that old thing? I cut it off. I couldn’t leave that bangle on after all. 

Yusuke: That seems a bit far just to be able to perform one’s forbidden action!

Gale: No, it’s not. She didn’t have a choice. After all, her forbidden action was **using a respirator or inhaler**. 

Hachise: Oh Galey, you’re so smart! If I’d had an attack, I’d either die from the asthma or die from the poison. It’s almost like Monokuma introduced the motive to kill me specifically! 

Monokuma: … 

Takamaru: This crazy bitch cut her own fuckin’ arm off, so what happened to the blood? 

Gale: It was at the crime scene, **Kari’s lab**. We assumed that blood belonged to Hachise—I mean—that it belonged to the body we found there, but in fact it came from Hachise’s arm. 

Hachise: I tried my best to keep all the pretty pink blood to a minimum, but I messed up. 

Reiko: You messed up?

Hachise: I couldn’t even take my hand off in one slice. Monokuma figured out I was trying to force off the bangle, and the poison got injected into my bloodstream! 

Haruki: Yet here you are, standing before us! 

Hachise: I still cut it off before too much poison got in me, so it only messed up my eye. 

Hachise gestured toward her eyepatch with her left forearm. 

Noise: If you went to that much fuckin’ trouble just to use your respirator, why the hell’d we find it broken at the fake crime scene? 

Hachise: Teehee, it wouldn’t be a very convincing dummy without my most noticeable trait. Besides, thanks to my sweet Galey, I don’t need that respirator anymore. 

Gale: You’re talking about the **inhaler** I gave you from the MonoMono Machine. 

Hachise: Aren’t you just the smartest? Gosh, I just love that about you. It’s not as good as the respirator, but that ugly thing was a bit excessive anyway. 

Haruki: Are we quite sure the poison didn’t damage her brain as well?

Takamaru: I’m not. 

Gale: I’m not sure, but I don’t think the poison is why she’s acting like this. I’m pretty sure it’s the **painkillers**. 

Usami: You mean the ones that were missing from the infirmary? I thought Haruki took those! 

Haruki: I most certainly didn’t take all of them! I didn’t want to end up like, well, that. 

Reiko: She’d definitely need painkillers if she was planning to self-amputate. 

Noise: That’d explain why she was in the infirmary at the end of Kari’s map data. 

Takamaru: I’m so fuckin’ lost right now. I thought the blackened was the person who killed Hachise, but **Hachise’s not even dead**! 

Hachise: You hear that, Monokuma? **I’m not dead** yet! 

Noise: If Ann’s the only victim, then ain’t Haruki the blackened? 

Haruki: Gasp! Doth my final curtain finally call? 

Reiko: But if there’s only one victim, why were there two body discovery announcements? 

Takamaru: Did Monokuma fall for Hachise’s trick too? 

Monokuma: Of course not! **I have cameras in Kari’s lab** , you know! I saw the whole thing! 

Yusuke: The body discovery announcement played when we discovered Kagami’s body, so does that make Kagami’s killer the blackened? 

Usami: That would mean **Monokuma’s the blackened**! 

Haruki: Doubtful! That would contradict what _l’ours monochromatique_ told us! 

Reiko: Kagami was executed when ze was uncovered as the blackened, and Monokuma said there weren’t any announcements for people who died from being punished. 

Noise: Charlotte’s and Ann’s bodies weren’t technically “discovered” until after that 1st announcement. 

Yusuke: No, I understand now! **This is Hachise’s vengeful ghost** come to fool us! 

Hachise: Ooh! I wonder! Reiko, let me try possessing you! **I’ve always wanted bigger boobs**! 

Noise: Could you 2 maybe stop fuckin’ around for, like, 31.46 seconds? 

Takamaru: Then that’s it! **There aren’t any other bodies to announce**! 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Haruki: I knew it! You discovered the body of an eighteenth student, and no one told me! 

Gale: Please, stop talking. There was more than one body around when that announcement played, so if it wasn’t playing for Kagami’s body, then it must’ve been playing for Lucille’s. 

Yusuke: Lucille was poisoned after performing her forbidden action, was she not? 

Gale: Maybe not, Noise and Kari thought something seemed off. Apparently, Lucille’s forbidden action was kissing someone on the lips. Why would she do that if she knew it would kill her? 

Noise: Right, we used the equipment in Kari’s lab to verify whether the poison that killed her was the same as the poison in the bangles. 

Kari: … 

Takamaru: Well, don’t leave us in suspense! What did you find? 

Noise: They were the same. 

Usami: Huh? Then she really was poisoned for performing her forbidden action? Then I wonder what happened to that… 

Reiko: That means Lucille was executed, not murdered. 

Monokuma: Well, that isn’t necessarily true. 

Hachise: Oh? Is Baby Bear finally ready to eat his own porridge? 

Monokuma: Just because someone died from performing their forbidden action doesn’t necessarily mean they weren’t also murdered. 

Noise: Well, duh, you’re the bastard murderin’ ‘em! 

Monokuma: Consider Hachise’s forbidden action. If someone had tied her up and forced her to use her inhaler, she’d still be poisoned for it, but the one who forced her would be her killer! 

Reiko: Then it counts as murder if someone didn’t intentionally perform their actions? 

Usami: Then why wasn’t there an announcement for Charlotte? She didn’t mean to see a body! 

Monokuma: It’s not about whether someone _meant_ to perform their forbidden action. It’s about whether they were _forced_ to. 

Yusuke: I am not sure I follow. 

Monokuma: Haruki might have killed Ann, but he didn’t force Charlotte to find her body. It’s not like he killed Ann in front of her, and whether Charlotte knew what she was doing or not… 

Monokuma: She decided to walk into that hallway!

Noise: All these technicalities are fuckin’ bullshit! 

Hachise: Hehe, you know what this means, right Galey? 

Gale: It means **Lucille was forced** to perform her forbidden action. She didn’t kiss anyone. Rather, she was forcibly kissed by someone. 

Takamaru: Then the real blackened is whoever kissed Lucille. 

Kari: It was me. 

The room fell silent for a long moment. All eyes turned to the president. 

Usami: Kari, what are you talking about? **You already have an alibi**. 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Haruki: Whatever do you mean? I drugged Kari’s coffee with laxatives, remember? She would’ve been in the bathroom for quite some time. 

Gale: I know, but I don’t think she ever actually drank the laxatives. There was a cup of coffee on her desk during the investigation. It didn’t look like it’d been touched. 

Kari: I lied about being in the bathroom. I was away from my lab because I killed Lucille. 

**_Hachise: Do you have a death wish?_ **

Hachise’s interjection came with a jarring clarity that had been absent from her demeanor in the trial until now. She held up a printed document featuring a pair of fingerprints and DNA strands. 

Hachise: The so-called president says she killed Lucille. 

Hachise: That statement, however, is blatantly false. 

Hachise: If you all rush to a vote now, every one of us will die! 

Hachise: This evidence proves my point. I found it on my way to the trial grounds. 

Gale: Hachise, you need to slow down. 

Gale: What’s that document? Where exactly did you find it?

Hachise: This is a report from the examination of Lucille’s body. 

Hachise: I found it on the printer in the Ultimate Forensic Criminalist's lab. 

Hachise: This document verifies the presence of fingerprints on Lucille’s corpse. 

Hachise: **It also features a DNA analysis** of foreign saliva found in Lucille’s mouth. 

Hachise: Basically, it’s evidence that proves who kissed Lucille by force. 

Hachise: Do you want to know whose fingerprints and DNA are on this document? 

Hachise: It’s Ren Amamiya, the Ultimate Phantom Thief! 

Gale: That’s absurd! If Kari’s innocent, why would she confess to the murder? 

Gale: She’d be getting herself and all of us killed! 

Hachise: I’m sure you’ve all heard of the famous Phantom Thieves of Hearts. 

Hachise: They brought down criminal after criminal by making them confess their guilt!

Hachise: How did they do that, you ask?

Hachise: Well, at first, everyone suspected blackmail. 

Hachise: But after interviewing many of the criminals, the police became increasingly suspicious. 

Hachise: Reportedly, all of the Phantom Thieves’ targets stopped acting like themselves. 

Hachise: It became clear that what the Phantom Thieves were really doing was _brainwashing_. 

Hachise: Something’s clearly wrong with Kari. Haven’t you noticed **she’s barely said a word**? 

Hachise: Do you see where I’m going with this? **Ren brainwashed Kari** into confessing! 

**_Gale: I’ll slice through that argument!_ **

Hachise: Galey, I thought you were smarter than this. You can’t prove someone isn’t brainwashed!

Gale: If Kari really was brainwashed, why would she make that document proving her brainwasher’s guilt? 

Noise: Kari started that analysis after she and I finished analyzing the poison. We set the report to print automatically when it was finished, but it didn’t finish in time for the class trial. 

Ren: I haven’t even seen Lucille since breakfast. 

Haruki: However, you have no way to prove that, now do you? 

Yusuke: Let us not forget Kari’s alibi has been debunked as well! 

Kari: I already confessed. Please, just let me atone! 

Usami: Kari, y-you might just think you did it. 

Takamaru: Yeah, if she was brainwashed, the president herself might not even know. 

Reiko: Right, and unlike Ren, there’s no hard evidence incriminating Kari. 

**_Monokuma: Two-for-one truth special!_ **

Takamaru: A two-for-what now?

Monokuma: Puhuhu! I’ve been waiting for this! It looks like there’s a split opinion again! In that case, the _S.S. Titanokuma-A_ is proud to present its very own **morphenomenal trial grounds**!

Yet again, Monokuma produced a key from under his seat and inserted it into a large gear that rose in front of him. When the key was turned, the whole trial ground was outlined in blue, and our platforms began to ascend. As the platforms arranged themselves into two groups based on our differences in opinion, the fact that I was outnumbered became apparent. I stood on one side of the divide with Ren, Yusuke, and Kari. Everyone else stood together on the opposite row. _Is Kari brainwashed or telling the truth?_

Hachise: This document proves that Ren Amamiya is the **blackened**! 

Kari: I already told you that I’m the **blackened**! Why won’t you believe me? 

Usami: You just think that because you’re **brainwashed**! You’d never kill Lucille! 

Gale: If Kari was **brainwashed** , then explain why she made that document. 

Reiko: She could’ve been brainwashed after the **analysis** had already started! 

Ren: Couldn’t she have just stopped the **analysis**? 

Noise: The **report** was scheduled to finish and print automatically. 

Yusuke: Can we truly be certain of the validity of that **report**? 

Takamaru: Didn’t **Noise** help make it? We already know he’s not the killer. 

Gale: **Noise** helped analyze the poison, but he never said anything about the DNA. 

Noise: Don’t put words in my fuckin’ mouth! As if Kari'd forge **evidence** right in front of me!

Yusuke: Then you acknowledge that she at least had the capability of forging **evidence**. 

Haruki: If she did, then why’d she **frame** the Phantom Thief of all people? 

Kari: I-I was going to **frame** Hachise, but…

Hachise: As far as you knew, I was dead. Isn’t that right? I guess **hiding** was the right move. 

Ren: Hachise is clearly still **hiding** something. 

**_This is our answer: FULL COUNTER!_ **

After our podiums returned to the ground, Hachise responded to Ren’s claim. 

Hachise: Oh? What is it exactly I could be hiding? 

Haruki: Actually, I’ve been wondering about it too. 

Gale: I hate to agree with Haruki, but you left out something important earlier. 

Hachise: You’re being so vague, Galey! Don’t tease me like that! 

Gale: You explained why you cut off your hand, but you never told us why you faked your death. 

Hachise: Oops! I must’ve left that part out, but you’re smart, Galey! Why do you think I did it? 

Gale: I think it’s because you knew **Kari was planning to frame you** for Lucille’s murder. 

Takamaru: Are you serious? 

Usami: How could she have known that? 

Gale: I’m not sure, but Hachise said herself that we’d believe Kari over her if push came to shove, and if Kari had that report backing her up, a normal alibi might not have convinced us. 

Yusuke: However, if Hachise were dead at the time of Lucille’s death, her alibi would be airtight. 

Noise: That’s pretty funny coming from the guy who thought she was a ghost. 

Gale: If Kari had analyzed Hachise’s decoy with her equipment, we almost certainly would have figured out the body was really Kagami’s, but Hachise must have known Kari would be busy analyzing Lucille to frame someone else. 

Reiko: But if Hachise knew all of that, then she must be…

Gale: Yeah, I’m pretty sure **Hachise is a witness** to Lucille’s murder. 

Hachise: You got me! I saw the whole thing! Kari kissed Lucille and murdered her! 

Ren: If you knew, why’d you bring up that fake document? 

Hachise: Teehee! I was hoping you’d reveal how your Phantom Thief powers work to prove you didn’t brainwash her! 

Haruki: Bravo! That was quite the spectacle, _mademoiselle_! 

Noise: Do _not_ encourage her bullshit! 

Usami: Then… Kari really did kill Lucille? She wasn’t brainwashed? 

Kari: I’ve been trying to tell you.

Gale: Kari, why don’t you tell us what happened from the very beginning?

**_Kari: This is what really happened._ **

Kari: It started this morning at 10:04. I was in my Ultimate Research Lab monitoring everyone using the map Miaya helped me copy from my e-Handbook to the desktop. Miaya had brought me a cup of coffee earlier in the morning, but I wasn’t thirsty, so I hadn’t touched it. While I was watching the map, I saw Lucille go into the Ultimate Thespian's lab by herself. That lab is one of the restricted areas, so I left my post to confront her about it. 

Kari: When I arrived at the Ultimate Thespian's lab, however, I found it was empty. At that point, I realized I was breaking the rules as well by being in a restricted lab by myself. Concerned about being labeled a hypocrite, I quickly left and started to return to my own lab. I still wanted to talk to Lucille, but I couldn’t check the map to find where she’d gone since I’d locked my e-Handbook in my room, so returning to my own lab and checking the map there was my best option. 

Kari: On my way, however, I heard a commotion coming from another room. When I investigated, I found the ruckus was coming from the Ultimate Moral Compass's lab. Naturally, I entered, and I was unsurprised to find Lucille. She was using some equipment to mess with that lab’s inactive elevator. I recognized some of her tools from the MonoMono Machine, and several of them could have been used as weapons. I was furious. I couldn’t understand why she kept breaking our rules, so I lashed out. I tried to stop what she was doing and confiscate her equipment, but she resisted. She yelled back at me, and we started arguing. That’s when I got desperate. 

Kari: Unfortunately, my forbidden action was “losing an argument.” As I’m sure you can imagine, I was in a panic. I used every trick in the book, but Lucille knows me too well. She stood her ground and refused to hand over her equipment. I wasn’t sure if showing her my forbidden action would count as losing the argument, so I tried something else to dissolve the tension. I kissed her. I grabbed her and kissed her. It used to work back when we… Never mind. Hachise must have seen me do it, but I didn’t see her. I couldn’t see anything except Lucille’s eyes. She had this look of fear and betrayal that I’ve never seen before. This doesn’t excuse my crime, but I swear I didn’t know it was her forbidden action. When I saw the poison in her body, I panicked. I didn’t know what to do. I held her and wept. I told her I was sorry, and when she faded, I could feel myself fading with her. I don’t know how long I stayed with her there.

Kari: When my body could finally move again, I took Lucille back to my lab. I didn’t care about Hachise’s body or the body discovery announcements. I knew what I had done. I knew if I was discovered, I would be executed. All I could think was that if part of me died with Lucille, then maybe part of Lucille was still alive in me. I couldn’t bear the thought of losing her again, so I did what I had to do to survive. I started analyzing Lucille’s body. I confirmed the poison that killed her was from performing her forbidden action, and I forged the evidence that Ren had committed the crime. I thought the other transfer students might take his side, but I knew the rest of my classmates would believe me over him, so the votes would still fall in my favor in the end. 

Kari: However, as I was walking toward the trial ground, I realized something. I realized that my wish to live for the sake of Lucille’s memory was entirely selfish. I remembered that look in her eyes as I killed her, and I imagined every one of you giving me that same look as you were executed for my crime. I imagined the transfer students calling me a devil and a traitor. I imagined Reiko blaming herself for convincing Takamaru to trust me, and I imagined Takamaru wondering why he’d trusted me for her sake. I imagined Haruki laughing hysterically and applauding my deception. I imagined Noise trying to prove that Monokuma had rigged the trial. I imagined Miaya losing Usami and not even being able to ask me, “Why?” Then, I realized that I wasn’t the person Lucille was fighting to protect this whole time. 

Kari: It was all of you. 

**_Usami: I won’t let you!_ **

Usami: Kari, Lucille wasn’t just trying to help us! She was protecting you too!

Usami: I know you’re a good person! 

Usami: No matter what you say, I won’t believe you’re the killer, even if it kills me! 

Usami: Maybe Hachise just thought she saw you kiss her… 

Usami: Or maybe she was brainwashed too! 

Usami: I can’t really keep up with what’s going on anymore… 

Usami: But I still want to believe in all of us! 

Usami: Watching my friends die, sentencing them to death…

Usami: I can’t take it anymore! 

Usami: What’s the point of fighting when everyone keeps dying anyway? 

Usami: If voting means killing another friend, then **I’m not going to vote**. 

**_Gale: I’ll discover the truth here and now!_ **

Usami: Stop it, Gale! Why do you always have butt in? 

Gale: Miaya, have you already forgotten **the reason Kari confessed**? If you don’t vote, you’ll be executed. Kari confessed because she didn’t want that to happen to us…

Kari: Miaya, please, this was my mistake. Let me be the one to pay for it. 

Reiko: Pres…

Yusuke: Then… you really did have a change of heart.

Ren: … 

Haruki: I… I find myself at a loss for words. 

Noise: You stupid bitch, you could’ve at least let me keep hating you if you were just gonna fuckin’ die on us…

Kari: Sorry, Noise, I guess you’re right…

Noise: And now you’ve gotta pick now of all times to start agreein’ with me… Fuck this…

The beginnings of tears started to form in Noise’s eyes. Takamaru bit his lip and offered the president a straight-standing salute. Hachise didn’t say a word, and Haruki’s lips flatlined. Miaya opened her mouth, but no words came out. Soft breaths struggled to escape from her mouth as she kept apparently trying to speak. Though her message remained silent, she mouthed the words, “I’m sorry.” 

Kari stepped away from her podium and walked around the trial ground to Miaya. She took the Ultimate Therapist’s e-Handbook from her hands, and she typed something onto the screen. When she turned the handbook around, the familiar image of Usami standing in a sunny field of flowers smiled forward at Miaya. “Don’t give up, Miaya. For my sake and Lucille’s sake, and for Charlotte’s sake and Kagami’s sake, and for everyone else’s, please keep going. Share your wonderful talents with the world, and never forget that you’re the one who gave me the strength to smile!” 

When we looked up from the e-Handbook, we saw Kari smiling under a flush of tears that fell from her eyes. Miaya solemnly took her handbook back from Kari, and the president returned to her podium as the voting screens unfolded in front of us. “Since it seems like you’ve all reached a consensus, let’s get to the long-awaited voting time!” Monokuma announced. “Please be certain to vote for someone. It’d be a waste to punish someone on such a technicality!” 

In addition to the four-by-four grid of pictures of the first sixteen students, a seventeenth picture featuring Hachise had been added just below the bottom-right picture. Of course, the pictures of Emiko, Lucille, Charlotte, and Ann were now crossed out in bright red. With a heavy heart and a steady hand, I tapped on Kari’s picture on the screen. Seconds later, the touchscreens folded back into the podiums, and the larger screen behind Monokuma displayed the tally: one vote for Ren, nine votes for Kari. “Congratulations!” Monokuma cheered, “You guessed correctly! The blackened is the one and only Hikari Yamamoto!” 

“I’ve been trying to think of something inspirational to leave you with, but honestly I’m drawing a blank,” Kari admitted with a forlorn chuckle, “so let me just say this. It’s been an honor serving as your student council president.” 

“Now then!” Monokuma continued, “I’ve prepared a very special punishment for Hikari Yamamoto, the Ultimate Student Council President and Ultimate Forensic Criminalist!” 

Kari stepped away from her podium and approached me. She placed a small object in her hand before turning her back to me. “Here, I think she’d want you to have it.” 

I looked down at my palm and saw Lucille’s hairpin, the same hairpin that was the Treasure of Kari’s Palace. “Thank you,” was all I could muster. 

“At least, I managed to get her away from you for a little bit,” Kari chuckled again. “You don’t think Daisuke and Shiro are hogging her for themselves on the other side, do you?” 

“I think…” I started before swallowing and putting on a smile, “she’d tell them to share.” 

“Ha,” Kari offered with an almost genuine laugh, “you’re probably right.” 

“Let’s give it everything we’ve got! It’s **_punishment time_ **!” Monokuma enthused as a nearby wall opened to reveal a stage set to resemble a more typical courtroom. A long, metal chain attached to a collar snapped around Kari’s neck and dragged her to the witness stand, which stood at the center of the mock court between two other stands that I assumed were meant to belong to the defense and prosecution. 

The prosecutor’s stand was occupied by a cardboard cutout of Lucille, who was pointing toward the witness stand as a cutout of a spiky speech bubble featuring the word “OBJECTION!” rose from the ground to align with her opened mouth. The defense’s stand featured a cardboard cutout of a distraught Usami. A small set of bleachers and a dozen rows of stools marked places for the jury and audience, which were all cardboard cutouts of Monokuma. 

The real Monokuma sat at the judge’s podium and was now wearing a long black robe as well as a curly, powdered wig that resembled something from colonial England. The Monokuma cutouts in the jury and audience shouted unintelligible insults at Kari, who stared up at Monokuma while the words “NOT GUILTY” lit up in green neon lights above his podium. After a moment, however, the word “NOT” flickered out. 

A giant gavel slowly rose from an opening in the ground next to Monokuma’s podium, and Monokuma produced his own smaller gavel from under his seat at the same time. Kari closed her eyes and looked downward, as Monokuma brought his gavel down onto a red button on his podium. Simultaneously, the giant gavel beside him crashed down onto Kari, whose blood was splattered across the mock courtroom. 


	8. Chapter 4: Divine Tragedy, Infernal Comedy - Daily Life

“Alright, scumbag, start talkin’,” the Ultimate Mathematician ordered our prisoner. 

Haruki Haruharu, the Ultimate Circus Performer, had openly admitted to murdering Ann Takamaki in the class trial that afternoon, but since Ann’s body was not the first to be discovered, the title of “blackened” instead went to Kari, our Ultimate Student Council President. Haruki was not only Ann’s killer, however. He had also admitted to being the “attacker,” Monokuma’s agent who was exempt from the rule limiting the number of any one person’s victims as long as our forbidden actions were in place. 

For better or for worse, the forbidden actions had only been in place for a few hours before we lost four of our classmates. To call those of us who remained “uneasy” would be a gross understatement. Whether from stress, trauma, or blood loss, Hachise had suffered from another attack as we left the trial ground, and Miaya had escorted the Ultimate Survivor to the dormitory so she could recover. According to the map on our e-Handbooks, the two had been in Miaya’s room since the trial ended. 

It took all of us working together, but the rest of us somehow managed to capture Haruki after the trial. The so-called Ultimate Class Clown was now bound to a chair in a dorm room. His hands were held behind his back by a pair of fuzzy (but surprisingly sturdy) handcuffs Takamaru had provided, and his legs had been tied to the chair’s using the room’s bedsheet. Reiko let us use her room for the interrogation since it was otherwise unoccupied, but the Ultimate Thespian had excused herself after letting us in. “I don’t even want to look at him,” she had said. The remaining students stood around Haruki. We weren’t sure how to handle a murderer who wasn’t executed by Monokuma, and we needed answers. 

“Aw, gee whiz, officer, you got me!” Haruki laughed. “You sure have shown me the error of my ways. Why don’t you let me go so I can donate all of my Monocoins to charity and help sick grandmothers cross the street?” 

Noise punched Haruki in the face so hard that his chair fell backward onto the floor. “Whoa! Whoa!” Takamaru exclaimed as he and Ren grabbed Noise’s arms to deter a second strike. “Noise! Get it together! We’re here to question him, not beat the man!” 

Haruki meanwhile laughed harder than ever before and was practically rolling in his chair. “Tough crowd!” the clown exclaimed through a wicked smile. 

“Tell us everything you know about Monokuma,” Noise seethed. 

“Hahaha-ha-ha-ha!” Haruki practically screeched, “I can’t believe how stupid you are!” 

Takamaru grabbed the back of Haruki’s chair and set the clown upright again. Noise jerked away from Ren’s grip and moved his face in front of Haruki’s. “I know everything is a fuckin’ joke to you, so I’ll phrase this in a way your fucked-up head can understand. I don’t like long gags, so let’s just skip to the fuckin’ punchline. Tell us what we want to know, and we might let you exit stage left.” 

“Ooh, you’ve got a pretty impressive tough guy act,” Haruki complimented with a toothy grin. “Let me guess: you picked this number up from the cops you met back in juvie? Sadly, you’ve forgotten this is a duet act. How would you put this? Wouldn’t the number of cops equal 2 such that there is 1 bad cop plus 1 good cop?” 

“Oh, yeah, genius, you got a real solid equation there,” Noise agreed sarcastically. “It’s a goddamn shame we’re short-staffed since you _murdered_ the fuckin’ good cop!” 

“Hahaha! You’d call Ann the good cop! That’s a good one!” Haruki laughed. 

“That ain’t who I fuckin’—”

“Quit playing along,” Takamaru told Noise as he stepped between them again. “This isn’t getting anywhere. You’re just entertaining him.” 

“Why was it Ann?” Yusuke seemed to ask himself more than Haruki. He was staring down at the floor from the side of the bed. 

“It’s not like I targeted her, but beggars can’t be choosers!” Haruki chuckled. 

“Then who were you targeting?” Ren asked. 

“You were all smart enough to single me out as the attacker,” Haruki sneered. “I don’t know why you’re bothering to ask me questions when you seem to have all the answers.” 

“It was probably Kari,” I deduced. “It struck me as weird during the trial too, but the only bathrooms we know about are the ones in our dorm rooms. If she had really gone to the bathroom, it would’ve been weird that she didn’t bump into the crime scene.” 

“Then, the laxative was not just to remove Kari from her lab, but it also served to lure her back to the dormitory?” Yusuke inferred. 

“Ding-dong, dong-ding!” Haruki buzzed. “We have a winner!” 

_Then, if Ann hadn’t gone to the dormitory to open Miaya’s door for us…_

“Alright, we’ll start there,” Takamaru sighed. “Why’d you target Kari?” 

“Obviously, she had the best chance of findin’ the bastard out,” Noise deduced. 

“Perhaps Monokuma instructed him to disrupt our leadership,” Yusuke theorized. 

“Jeez, ‘Monokuma this, Monokuma that,’ you guys are so obsessed it’s killing me!” Haruki joked. “No, no, I just killed someone because I had to!” the clown giggled. “But if I had to say why I picked Kari in particular, I’d say it was for the sake of _hope_.” 

Ren opened his bag and looked down into it for a moment. “Nope, still haven’t found your sense of humor,” he remarked. 

“Ha-ha-ha! Careful there, Phantom Thief! I might just die laughing, and then you’d be the next blackened!” Haruki joked. “I was serious about killing Kari, though. All of you sensed it too, right? Something had to be done about her. She was going to plunge all of us into _despair_.” 

“You told me before that succumbing to despair was the worst-case scenario for you,” I remembered. “You said you had to keep laughing and smiling and escape for your sister’s sake.” 

“Oh yeah? And what the fuck would your dear sister think if she found out you tried to kill Kari, murdered an innocent girl, and got Charlotte poisoned?” Noise prompted. 

“She’d tell me the same thing I told her when she was expelled for cheating on her exams,” Haruki chuckled. “‘You seriously got caught? What a joke!’”

That evening, we weren’t able to get anything else out of Haruki. Ultimately, we released him from the chair so he could use the restroom, but we kept him on lockdown in Reiko’s room. Noise and Takamaru agreed to take shifts guarding the door that night to keep him from wandering around until we could decide on a course of action with the rest of the class. 

Before I retired for the night, however, there was one more place I had to investigate. On the second floor of the ship, I opened the paper-white door to the Ultimate Moral Compass's lab, the scene of Lucille’s murder. The first oddity that jumped out at me was the area next to the inactive elevator. A sledgehammer lay on the floor among wire cutters, a sizeable external battery, pliers, and other various tools. The sheetrock wall around the elevator’s button had been smashed to reveal a plethora of wires that had been variously interwoven and connected to the external battery. _This must be what Kari was talking about._

Experimentally, I approached the button next to the elevator doors and pressed it. Like before, nothing happened. _She wasn’t able to get it working after all._ I squatted down by the battery and stared in vain for some time before admitting to myself that I had no idea how to finish what Lucille had started. As I surrendered to my lack of electrical knowledge, however, I saw something drawn on the floor. When I looked closer, I noticed it was a small trail of blood. _This must be from Lucille’s eye after she was poisoned._ The trail, however, was not random, and when I looked closer, I saw a distinct message had been drawn in the blood: _g a_. 

“G-A,” I read aloud, “Kari didn’t mention anything about this. She must not have noticed it. Then…” 

_This must be Lucille’s dying message._

“Dammit, why is everything so cryptic?” I sighed to myself. “Well,” I almost whispered as I cupped my hand over the message, “you put your trust in me, so it’s only fair I do the same for you.” 

When I went back to the dormitory, the abundance of yellow tape offered a grim reminder of our depleted numbers. Lucille’s, Charlotte’s, Ann’s, and Kari’s doors had all been sealed. I found myself staring at Lucille’s door a little too long. Without thinking, my hand drifted to the yellow tape, but a familiar voice interrupted me “Hold on!” Monokuma shouted as he fell from the ceiling and landed between the door and me. “Don’t go messing with the tape! Once you take it off, it’s impossible to get to stick again!” 

 _It’s like Reiko’s green tape then._ “Couldn’t you just replace it with more tape?” I wondered. 

“No way!” Monokuma objected, “I only have enough to cover each door once, so I can’t afford to replace the tape if it’s torn off!” 

“That seems like pretty poor planning on your part,” I criticized. 

“You try masterminding the killing game of the century and telling me you didn’t forget one or two tiny details!” Monokuma shot back in an offended tone before disappearing back into the ceiling. 

After a long sigh, I turned away from Lucille’s door and retired to my own room for the night. I found myself lying awake again with even more questions than before: _Shiro’s motive, the unkillable spy, the inactive elevator, Lucille’s dying message—how’s it all connected?_ I opened my e-Handbook and stared at the new rule that had been added in today’s trial:

18\. If two different murders by two different murderers occur at the same time, only the one whose victim was found first will be the blackened.

_What about Haruki? He admitted to being Monokuma’s attacker. He got away with murder, and it’s possible Monokuma was covering for him by dropping that new rule on the spot, but does that really make him unkillable?_

“Mm, ahem, this is your captain speaking,” Monokuma decreed from a nearby monitor. “It is now 10 p.m. As such, it is officially nighttime. Soon the doors to the kitchen will be locked, and entry at that point is strictly prohibited. Okay then… sweet dreams, everyone! Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite…” 

I slept through Monokuma’s morning announcement the next day. It took some effort to convince myself, but I pulled myself out of bed, got dressed, took a shower, freshened up, and went to the restaurant for breakfast. Breakfast was emptier than ever. Aside from myself, only Reiko, Ren, Yusuke, Noise, Miaya, and Hachise were present. “Is this really everyone?” Usami asked on Miaya’s behalf after we ate in silence for a while. 

“Takamaru’s watching Reiko’s room to keep Haruki from running off,” Noise sighed, “so this is it for today.” 

“It seems odd that Monokuma has not even come to gloat this morning,” Yusuke noticed. 

“Like he could make us feel any worse,” Reiko commented. 

“Oh, yeah, Hachise,” I started, “are you, um, feeling any better?” 

“Yep-yep!” Hachise’s affirmation was accentuated by a brace-faced grin. “Miaya gave me a blood transfusion from the infirmary, and I slept like a baby last night!” 

“Anyway, what’s our next move?” Noise wondered. “We need to figure out what to do with Haruki.”

“Before that, we should really investigate more,” Hachise suggested. “Miaya told me a new floor opens up every time there’s a trial, so let’s start with that. I’m super-duper curious!” 

“Sure, I don’t care one way or another,” Reiko droned as she stood up and left the restaurant. 

“I guess that’s that,” Noise groaned. 

Our meager group began to disperse with the goal of searching the new floor. Hachise, however, approached me as everyone left. “Hey, Galey, this is kind of embarrassing to ask, but would you mind if I investigated with you? I’m still kind of wobbly after yesterday, so I’m scared to wander around by myself.” 

“Yeah, no problem,” I agreed. _Is she really scared after everything she pulled yesterday?_

Hachise and I descended to the third floor and went down the hallway with the infirmary and the Ultimate Forensic Criminalist's lab. As we passed those doors, I hesitated for a moment. “Is something wrong, Galey?” Hachise asked when I paused. 

“I’m not sure,” I admitted. For some reason, I had the feeling I was forgetting something. “I’ll let you know when I figure it out.” 

Past the doors, we found the area that had been blocked by Monokuma’s barrier. As expected, the barrier had been lifted to reveal a staircase leading downward. We descended the stairs to the new floor. Unlike the previous two floors, this floor consisted only of a single hallway, each side of which featured two doors. The hallway itself ended in another barrier featuring Monokuma’s face. 

We started with the closest door, one to our right. I immediately guessed this one wasn’t an Ultimate Research Lab since the door was blank, but I wasn’t expecting what we found inside: a large, dimly-lit space full of a variety of arcade machines. “It’s an arcade!” Hachise marveled a little too obviously. 

Miaya was playing some kind of 2D side-scroller where she controlled a pixelated Usami, who jumped and dashed screen-right while avoiding a swarm of pixelated Monokumas. Noise, meanwhile, lounged on a dark blue sofa while holding a can of soda pop. He leaned his head back over the back of the sofa and seemed to be staring into the ceiling. “0 clue why the hell Monokuma’d give us a place like this,” Noise admitted, “but honestly I’m just glad for a break room. Shit’s been too tense lately.” 

“Hey, Noise,” I started as Hachise began to watch Miaya’s game over her shoulder, “I didn’t really get a chance to ask yesterday, but what were you doing in Miaya’s room during the murders? I thought Kari didn’t want any boys in there since she was sharing the room.” 

“Oh, that?” Noise replied as he produced another soda from under the couch and offered it to me. “I wasn’t sure how to deal with my forbidden action. I ain’t exactly used to all that ‘0 talking’ shit, so I asked Miaya for advice. She thought it’d be a good idea to have a therapy session about it, but her lab was off-limits, so we held it in her room instead.” 

“Huh, Mia, you didn’t tell me your lab was restricted,” Hachise whimpered. 

The pixelated Usami on Miaya’s arcade machine was struck by a falling Monokuma, and the screen went dark. “GAME OVER,” the machine declared in a deep voice. 

Miaya took her e-Handbook from her pocket and typed something onto the screen before showing it to Hachise. “My lab wasn’t restricted by Kari,” Usami explained. Then, Miaya produced a second item from her pocket: a detached bangle from our most recent motive. 

The red text on the bangle red, “ENTERING THE ULTIMATE THERAPIST'S LAB.” 

“I was too afraid to tell anyone my forbidden action when we were on the deck,” Miaya admitted vicariously through Usami. “I was scared the attacker would drag me into my lab to kill me since I’m so small…” 

“Ooh, poor Mia!” Hachise exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around the silent, expressionless therapist. “We’d never let something so horrible happen to you!”

“When the hell’d she start calling her ‘Mia’?” Noise asked. 

“At least it’s not as bad as ‘Galey,’” I murmured back. 

“You don’t need any, like, help with her, do you, Bro?” Noise asked me. “This chick’s got more red flags than a Soviet marching band.” 

“Well, she hasn’t caused me any trouble so far,” I replied. “She’s definitely a bit off, but I think she was just desperate yesterday cuz her life was in danger.” 

“If you say so,” Noise grumbled. 

Further investigation revealed that the games in the arcade required Monocoins to play. I found one such coin in the tray of one of the arcade machines, but I decided to pocket it and save it for later instead of spending it here and now. Finding nothing else of note, Hachise and I left the arcade and walked up to the next door, which featured an outline of two pom-poms. “Oh! This must be Charlotte’s lab!” Hachise decreed as she opened the door. 

Inside, we found a bright, rectangular room with a grassy floor and high ceiling. White lines were painted across the grass to make the floor look like a miniature football field. Bleachers were pressed against the walls on either side of the room. Reiko was lying on her back in the middle of the field and staring upward at the bright lights on the ceiling. “ _Ciao_ , Reiko, how are you holding up?” I asked as Hachise and I approached the Ultimate Thespian. 

“The grass is fake,” Reiko replied curtly. “There’s not actually soil here, so we can’t plant anything for food.” 

“Um, I think we still have enough food for a bit,” I tried to reassure her, but her blank stare persisted. 

“This lab is boring,” Hachise yawned. “There’s nothing here.” I stared up at the empty room, and for a moment, I could almost see Charlotte excitedly clapping for herself after performing some new trick on the grass. “Don’t you think it’s a little early to be getting nostalgic?” Hachise snapped me out of my vision with a brace-faced smile. 

I subtly shook my head and wiped the beginnings of a tear from my eye. “Let’s check out the next room,” I suggested. As we left, the golden glint of a Monocoin caught my eye in the grass. I stopped long enough to pick it up before returning to the hallway. 

Moving down the hall, we found the next room behind a crimson door marked with the silhouette of a high-heel shoe. The lab inside resembled a photography studio. Various adjustable lights illuminated a small stage, behind which was a green screen that could be traded out for any number of nearby backdrops. Several high-quality cameras pointed toward the small stage, and a few foldable chairs that looked like they would belong to stereotypical movie directors were lined up around the cameras. To the side of the room, there was a rack containing a menagerie of expensive-looking dresses and other feminine apparel. The clothes here were of noticeably higher quality than those in the Ultimate Thespian's lab, and many of them were accompanied by precious metals and gemstones. 

“Oh my god!” Hachise exclaimed as she quickly produced her inhaler and took a few deep breaths. “Jackpot!” The Ultimate Survivor was instantly transfixed by the variety of luxurious dresses and gowns, but my eye was drawn to Yusuke, who was staring listlessly at a backdrop of a beach. 

“ _Ciao_ ,” I greeted him as I approached from behind, “I take it you like this one.” 

“It reminds me of a beach I once saw in Hawaii,” Yusuke confessed. 

Unsure of how to reply, I left Yusuke to his beach and returned to Hachise. _I guess she wasn’t kidding about following fashions._ “See any you like?” I asked without thinking. 

“Do I ever!” she replied giddily. “Sadly, most of them are far too long. I’d definitely get killed if someone chased me while I was wearing one of these!” 

“That’s…” I started before trailing off again. 

“Anyway, I’ll come back and pick one out later!” Hachise assured me. “Let’s keep exploring!” 

The threshold to the fourth and final room was a quaint wooden door inscribed with the outline of a magnifying glass. _Dammit… Why’d it have to be hers?_

Hachise and I entered the room to find a quiet study lined with bookshelves. A microscope and a few vials with some unknown solutions sat atop a wooden table, and Ren rested in a cushioned rocking chair nearby. He was holding a manila folder in one hand and a stack of papers—presumably its contents—in the other. Hachise was first drawn to the liquids on the desk but almost immediately lost interest. Then, her attention turned to the bookshelves. “These are legal documents,” she observed, “and case files.” 

“Seriously? All of them?” I wondered as I marveled at the vast collection. 

“Yep,” Hachise affirmed as she scanned her forefinger across a row of books at random, “there’s Genocide Jack, Sparkling Justice, the Flock… The list goes on, but all of these cases are unsolved.” 

“Check this out,” Ren said as he stood up and handed me a couple papers from his stack. 

The first was a blueprint for some kind of massive building. At first, I couldn’t tell what the building was supposed to be, but I soon noticed a courtyard, classrooms, a pool, a library, tennis courts, and any number of athletic and scholarly amenities. _Could this be Hope’s Peak Academy?_ The second page looked like a transcription of an email: 

 

 

 

> _Mr. Kirigiri,_
> 
> _I understand that the completion of the overseas branch is of the utmost importance for the future of Hope’s Peak. However, I cannot permit myself to neglect my current duties either. As a teacher, the development of my students is my first and foremost priority. I have spoken to Ms. Fujikawa, and she feels the same. Since the staff of Hope’s Peak has yet to succeed in locating adequate substitute teachers for Ms. Fujikawa or myself, we will agree to assist in the design and construction of the new campus on one condition: All of our students must be permitted (with, of course, their own consent and the consent of their families) to accompany us to the site of the overseas branch in a manner that will not obstruct their education. Should this decision not be unanimous among our students and their families, neither Ms. Fujikawa nor I will participate in the project. Thank you for understanding._
> 
> _Sincerely,_
> 
> _Shigekazu Kudo_

“This is from Kudo-sensei,” I observed aloud, “but what’s this about an overseas branch, and who’s Mr. Kirigiri?” 

“Jin Kirigiri,” Hachise breathed onto my neck. Her sudden appearance startled me; I wasn’t sure at what point she’d crept up behind me. “He’s the headmaster of Hope’s Peak,” Hachise explained. “I heard rumors they were building an expansion to Hope’s Peak overseas. I guess they wanted Kudo-sensei and Fujikawa-sensei to help.” 

“Them specifically?” Ren asked. 

“Shigekazu Kudo, the Ultimate Architect!” Hachise announced as she climbed onto the wooden table. “Yayoi Fujikawa, the Ultimate Landscaper!” Following her proclamation, Hachise sat down on the edge of the table and started swinging her legs back and forth. “The two were classmates at Hope’s Peak. It’s not uncommon for alumni to become teachers at the school, after all. Their talents would’ve been incredibly useful for the construction of the overseas campus.” 

“I had no idea,” I admitted. 

“Here’s the thing,” Hachise giggled. “I don’t remember anything about this either.” 

“What?” Ren asked. 

“Nope! I don’t remember anything about agreeing to study overseas!” Hachise told us. “I’m guessing it’s the same for the other students, but considering that I also have no memory of how I got on that other boat, I can only assume the two things are related.” 

“Can you show this to the others and see what they think?” I asked Ren as I returned the letter and the blueprints. Ren nodded to me and took the papers out of the lab. 

Once the door closed behind him, I practically collapsed into the rocking chair where he had been sitting. “Is something wrong, Galey?” Hachise asked me as she approached. 

“The Ultimate Cheerleader's lab, the Ultimate Model's lab, and the Ultimate Prosecuting Attorney's lab—I can’t believe all of the labs on this floor are for the people we lost just yesterday,” I admitted as I opened the Report Cards on my e-Handbook.

“Do you miss them?” Hachise asked as she sat on the arm of my chair. 

“Yeah,” I answered as I lingered over Lucille’s picture, which had been crossed out with a bold, red X like the other deceased, “I guess I do.” 

“We shouldn’t stay here,” Hachise suggested as she placed her hand over my handbook and pushed it toward my lap. “This place is bad for you.” 

“You’re probably right,” I conceded as I stood from the chair. Hachise followed me out of the lab and back upstairs to the first floor. I was heading toward the restaurant, but Hachise moved in the direction of the Ultimate Lucky Student's lab. “What are you doing?” I asked after following her to the lab’s door, where she was starting to tear off Reiko’s green tape. 

“I’m going to use the MonoMono Machine,” she explained with a confused look. “I found some Monocoins while we were exploring. Didn’t you?” 

“Yeah,” I replied, “but the Ultimate Lucky Student's lab is condemned. We’re not supposed to—”

“Says who?” Hachise interrupted. “Kari’s dead. She’s the only one who cared.” 

Not without compunctions, I followed Hachise into the Ultimate Lucky Student's lab and watched as she won some canned peaches, a bottle of hand sanitizer, a bottle of glasses cleaner, a makeup kit with a tutorial booklet, and a Newton’s cradle. She seemed a little disappointed with her prizes and then stepped aside to let me try my hand. Using my own Monocoins, I won a powerful-looking graphics card and a designer-brand, zebra-print bikini. 

“Oh my gosh! You don’t need that swimsuit, do you?” Hachise asked as she practically tackled me with her eyes on the bikini. 

“Uh, no, I guess I don’t need it,” I acknowledged. 

“Can I have it? Please?” Hachise pressed. “It’s so cute!” 

“Sure, I don’t see why not,” I chuckled as I handed her the swimsuit. 

“I have to try this on! Galey, let’s go swimming! Oh, wait. I probably shouldn’t swim with my arm like this.” Hachise seemed to think to herself for a moment as she eyed her bandaged, bloodstained arm. “Then let’s go hot-tubbing!” 

 _I_ have _been wanting to try out the hot tub, but after Shiro was murdered there…_

“What’s that look for?” Hachise seemed to notice my diffidence. “I can’t kill you in the hot tub, silly. I can’t carry a weapon on me if I’m just wearing a swimsuit, and you could definitely overpower me.” 

“No, that’s not what I—”

“Then let’s go!” Hachise enthused as she grabbed me by the wrist before dragging me out of the Ultimate Lucky Student's lab. I had to jerk away to stop by my room long enough to drop off my other winnings and grab my swimsuit. 

The pool room brought back more than one unpleasant memory, and the boys’ locker room wasn’t much better. Unable to come to grips with what had happened just yet, I decided to head straight to the hot tub after changing instead of waiting on Hachise to change in the girls’ room. The hot, bubbly water was every bit as relaxing as I had hoped. I pushed aside any unwanted qualms I had about the site of Shiro’s murder by telling myself this was different water. The tub couldn’t wash away what happened, but that shouldn’t let me stop it from washing away my tension. 

Just as I got comfortable, Hachise entered the room. She was holding her new bikini’s top over her chest with her remaining hand. “Um, Gale, can you help me tie my top?” Her request seemed sincerer than I had expected. “I’m having trouble trying to do it with just one hand.”

“Oh, uh, no problem!” I assured her. Hachise sat on the edge of the hot tub with her feet in the water, and I moved behind her to tie her bikini in the back. My mind was pulled away from any invasive thoughts when I noticed a few surgical scars around her sides, but I decided it would be impolite to ask about them. 

“Thanks, Galey!” Hachise giggled as she returned to her bubbly self. Hachise slid forward into the hot tub and allowed herself to relax, but she kept her injured arm out of the water. I stepped back into the hot tub and sat next to her. 

“I just remembered!” I exclaimed as I almost jumped out of the tub. 

“What’s wrong?” Hachise asked. 

“Oh, nothing,” I quickly calmed myself down as I returned to my seat, “I just remembered something I was meaning to ask you. You said you found Kagami’s body past that door in the Ultimate Forensic Criminalist's lab, right? What else was back there? You said it was a morgue; does that mean there were more bodies?” 

“Hmm,” Hachise hummed as she leaned sideways against my shoulder, “I wouldn’t mind taking you there in private if you’d like…” 

“No funny business?” I questioned. 

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Hachise assured me as she blew on my neck, “but I do have one condition.” 

“What do you want?” I asked. 

“It’s something only you can give me, Galey…” Hachise teased as she turned around and straddled my lap. She wrapped her arms behind my head and bit her lip as her eyes moved up and down over me. She leaned forward and whispered into my ear, “I want you to tell me how you and the other Phantom Thieves change people’s hearts…” 

“I…” I gulped. The water suddenly felt twice as hot. “I can’t do that,” I sighed. 

“Aw,” Hachise pouted, “then there’s no deal.” 

_Well, I can’t exactly force her to reveal her secret if I can’t reveal mine…_

“Alright, that’s fine,” I conceded, “but there’s something else I want to check too.”

“Can it wait until after this?” Hachise requested as she nuzzled between my neck and shoulder. 

_Is she always this clingy? Do I mind? She is a bit… off, but I don’t think she’s…_

I decided to let myself relax again as I recalled what Haruki had said about enjoying ourselves and knowing that each day could be our last on this ship. As much as I hated to agree with him, my mind was approaching the limits of what I could process. Lucille’s dying message, the spy, Shiro’s motive, the mastermind, the Metaverse, Haruki’s imprisonment,and everyone we had lost so far—I wanted to throw up any time I tried to wrap my head around it all. I couldn’t exactly wrap my head around Hachise either, but maybe I didn’t need to. Maybe I could just enjoy this… 

Hachise and I snuggled in the hot tub almost wordlessly until our skin wrinkled from the prolonged exposure. To my relief, Hachise was able to dry off and change back into her normal clothes without my assistance. I dried off and changed as well, and Hachise humored my earlier request by following me to the infirmary. I gestured toward the electronic scanner on the medicine cabinet that locked the shelf Monokuma had said was stocked with poison. “I’m pretty sure none of us could unlock this,” I explained, “but we couldn’t unlock the backdoor in Kari’s lab either, and your e-Handbook could. I want to see if you have access to the poisons.” 

“Wow, you’re really covering your bases, Galey!” Hachise chuckled as she took her e-Handbook from her pocket. She showed me her ID on the handbook to verify it was hers, and then she swiped her handbook over the scanner, which buzzed angrily and blipped its red light in reply. “I already tried, though, and I can’t unlock this door either.” Hachise smiled at me as I breathed an involuntary sigh of relief. 

Hachise walked back to the dormitory with me, and we bade each other goodnight before retiring for the evening. Monokuma’s nighttime announcement played just as I was drifting to sleep, and then getting comfortable in my bed again became very difficult. I had to take off my shirt since my body still felt hot after relaxing with Hachise. Neither of us had made a move past her invasion of my personal space, but I couldn’t help but wonder if she had wanted me to. She might have just been trying to creep me out again. 

Suddenly, I remembered Lucille’s advances in the shower of the girls’ locker room. “Maybe I was,” she had teased when I accused her of trying to seduce me. I didn’t do anything then. I wasn’t sure how I felt, but now I’d never get to find out. Just how many more regrets will I have? Could I even survive long enough to have more regrets? I wasn’t sure. I had made up my mind not to sit back idly, yet that’s just what I did. Still, if I acted on all of my impulses in here because I didn’t want to have regrets, would that make me as bad as Haruki? As the hours passed, I found myself wanting to return to the hot tub with Hachise where I could forget everything, but I knew forgetting these problems would be even worse than doing nothing. 

Monokuma’s morning announcement was an unwelcome reminder of the time slipping through my grasp. _I know you trusted me, Lucille, but how am I supposed to figure all this shit out if I can’t even get a good night’s sleep?_ After imagining a quippy response from the late attorney, I sighed to myself and dragged myself out of bed before getting ready for the day. 

Hachise, Ren, Yusuke, Reiko, Takamaru, Miaya, and Noise—everyone but Haruki was present. “Who’s watching Haruki?” was my first question. 

“I received a lock from the MonoMono Machine while searching for more food or means of escape,” Yusuke explained. “It was compatible with the doors to our rooms, so Takamaru and Noise decided to use it to lock Haruki in Reiko’s room.” 

“Even taking shifts, sittin’ there doin’ nothin’ for 12 fuckin’ hours a day was intolerable,” Noise complained. “We couldn’t keep that shit up.” 

“Watching the door was just a temporary solution anyway,” Takamaru yawned before taking another sip from a coffee mug on the table in front of him. 

“Um, I’m glad you don’t have to watch Haruki all the time, but isn’t the MonoMono Machine supposed to be off limits?” Miaya asked vicariously through Usami. 

“That’s actually our first order of business for today,” Takamaru proclaimed. 

“Oh yeah! Now that Galey’s here, we have everyone we need to talk about that!” Hachise enthused. 

“The rules we made up about restricted rooms and curfew and all that were enforced by Kari. Now that she’s gone, we lack executive leadership,” Takamaru clarified. “We need a new president. We’re going to need a united direction to come up with a plan to beat Monokuma. Any plan we make will fail if we aren’t all on the same page.” 

“I suppose,” Yusuke quietly agreed as he fidgeted with a can of whipped cream while staring at his pancakes. 

“Then let’s have a secret ballot!” Usami suggested on Miaya’s behalf. 

“I’m fine with that,” Ren added. 

“Then let’s do it!” Takamaru declared. “Democracy wins another day!” The Ultimate Pilot handed out sheets of paper that seemed to have been torn from Reiko’s notebook as well as pens. “Write down your vote, and fold the paper before passing it back to me,” Takamaru instructed as he wrote a name on his own piece of paper and folded it in half. 

I thought about my choice for a minute and looked around at my classmates before reaching a decision. Then, I wrote down my answer, folded the paper, and passed it to Takamaru. In less than a minute, everyone else had done the same. Takamaru opened the papers and tallied them aloud. “That’s one vote for Gale, one for me, one for Noise, one for Miaya, one for Ren, and three for Reiko.” 

“Guess we got a winner,” Noise added as he looked to Reiko. “Alright, Pres, what’s the call?”

Reiko maintained the silence she had kept all morning as Miaya typed something into her e-Handbook. The Ultimate Therapist pointed her screen forward as Usami threw virtual confetti into the screen. “I never said I would be president!” Reiko snapped as she stood up. The sudden motion jarred the table and spilled her coffee onto her pancakes. 

“Congratulations!” Usami cheered out of turn. Miaya turned red as she tried in vain to muffle what she had previously typed into her e-Handbook. 

“Dammit!” Reiko shouted as she kicked the table and stormed off. 

The room stayed quiet for a long moment before Noise broke the silence. “The fuck’s her problem?” 

“She’s been like this since the last trial,” Takamaru sighed. 

“It’s been a little over a week since our last round of therapy sessions,” Usami mentioned after Miaya typed on her e-Handbook. “They were supposed to be weekly. Maybe it’s time for another round.” 

“We probably need it,” Noise admitted with a huff as he turned his eyes from the forlorn Yusuke to the giggly Hachise. 

“If there’s a chance it’ll help Reiko…” Takamaru conceded. 

“Let’s give her a bit to think about the election,” I suggested. 

“Good idea, Galey!” Hachise complimented. “Then let’s start with you and then go down the list! We can get to Reiko whenever! She won’t be able to refuse if everyone else has done it!” 

“Any objections?” Noise asked as he turned to Ren and Yusuke. Neither had a comment, but their silence seemed agreeable enough. 

I wasn’t sure how to feel about being voluntold for the first session, but my last one-on-one with Miaya wasn’t unpleasant. We finished what remained of our breakfast, and I went with Miaya to the Ultimate Therapist's lab. Not realizing how tired I still was, I nearly collapsed on the room’s couch as Miaya sat at her desk and took a notepad from one of the drawers. My eyes wandered as she scribbled a few things down, and I saw the plush of Usami I had given her was standing on top of the nearby bookshelf. “How are you doing, Gale?” asked the virtual Usami on Miaya’s handbook. “You seem like you’ve gotten more distant since we last talked.” 

“I’ve just had a lot on my mind,” I admitted. “I’m sure everyone has.”

“Is it about Lucille?” Usami asked. 

“Yeah,” I continued, “it’s not what you’re probably thinking, though. I know how she was, but she and I never really—I mean we didn’t…” 

“You don’t have to explain if you don’t want to,” Usami reminded me on Miaya’s behalf, “but if you’d like to tell me, I’d love to try to understand more.” 

For some reason, I told her everything. Even I wasn’t sure why. I started with the time I walked in on Lucille and Shiro in the locker room. I had kept it a secret for their sakes up until now, but now, neither of them was around to care. I talked about Lucille’s supposed kiss of death, and I talked about the time she dragged me into the shower. I even told Miaya about Lucille’s theory that the spy was unkillable. “I can’t make any sense of it!” I complained. “How can someone be unkillable? To Lucille, it seemed like the only logical conclusion, but how could she decide that so blatantly?” I continued to go on about Lucille’s dying message. The letters _g_ and _a_ had no significance as far as I could tell. 

To my surprise, Miaya made no initial attempt to help me solve the mystery. “It’s okay if you don’t have all the answers yet,” Usami assured me on Miaya’s behalf. “No one is expecting you to figure all of this out on your own, not even Lucille. You can lean on others for support, and as long as we work together to prevent any more murders, we have a while before we run out of food. If you try to force yourself to come up with answers, you’re more likely to make mistakes. You should search for clues or get others’ perspectives, and use those things to guide your logical reasoning. What Lucille left us were only pieces of the puzzle. If that by itself was enough to solve it, I’m sure she would have figured everything out herself. We can’t just rely on her deductions. We have to pick up where she left off.” 

What Miaya said made perfect sense, yet somehow, I had never considered it before. First, I felt idiotic for not realizing what she stated so obviously. Then, I felt relieved as a burden was suddenly lifted from my chest. With that relief came tears. I don’t know if I had been damming them before, or if Miaya evoked something entirely new from me, but when the tears came to my side, so did she. Miaya moved beside me on the couch. She wiped the first few tears from my cheeks, and when she realized they weren’t stopping, she buried my face in her shoulder. 

I’m not sure how long I let her hold me like that, but just when I thought my tears were finished, I heard her sniffling. Muffled noises that weren’t quite words choked out from Miaya’s lips as thin waterfalls began to stream from her oceanic eyes. Her emotions resonated with my own, and I screamed, not in anger or rage, but in some internal agony. I held Miaya tighter, and we soaked each other’s shirts with our melancholy. 

When we had cried all we could, Miaya pulled away, and she somehow managed to smile at me. Her dumbfounded grin caused me to chuckle, but my laughter got caught in my throat as I tried to avoid coughing on her. “I can use the computer in the Ultimate Forensic Criminalist's lab to come up with possible meanings for Lucille’s dying message,” Usami declared behind a cartoonish magnifying glass after Miaya typed something into her e-Handbook. “I should be able to come up with something by taking our situation and her personality into account.” 

“I don’t know if this will help,” I choked out before giving her the graphics card I had won from the MonoMono Machine, “but you can probably find a better use for it than I can.” 

Usami thanked me for Miaya, and I felt the need to excuse myself as another lump stuck in my throat. Miaya’s smile told me this was plenty for today, and I felt oddly rejuvenated, like the sensation of simultaneous pain and reprieve the moment a splinter is removed. 

With some newfound resolve, I decided to return to the Ultimate Prosecuting Attorney's lab. Ren had found that letter from Kudo-sensei. Who knew what else could be lurking amidst those documents? I spent most of that day in solitude among the books and files populating Lucille’s lab. Every single page contained incredible detail about some crime, criminal, or case, but none of it seemed relevant to our situation. There was nothing about Monokuma, crimes targeting students at Hope’s Peak, killing games, or large groups of missing persons found at sea. 

“You’re thinkin’ the math ain’t checkin’ out, right?” a voice startled me out of a case file involving Genocide Jack. 

“Whoa!” I yelped as I nearly smacked Noise in the face with my papers by accident. The Ultimate Mathematician caught my stack in his hand, however.

“This ain’t it, chief,” Noise sighed down at my seat on the floor before tossing the papers aside and inadvertently scattering them across the floor. 

“Hey!” I defended as I reached for one before Noise stepped on my outstretched hand. “Shit, dude, what the—”

“If you’re thinkin’ ol’ Geno kidnapped us cuz Lucille and Kari were on his trail, you’re wastin’ your time. Genocide Jack doesn’t have the resources, and if he did, he'd've just killed us by now,” Noise scolded without lifting his foot from my fingers. 

“Who else has the motive?” I groaned back as I scowled up at him. 

“It ain’t about motive,” Noise bit back before stepping off. “Think about it. Why would Monokuma, or the bastard controllin’ him, put case files about himself in here. I guess he wouldn’t. Well, not unless he were some big-name sicko, and his absence would seem suspicious.” 

“Then who’s to say—”

“0 big-name killers are missin’,” Noise declared. “Matter of fact, practically every living killer and registered scumbag in Japan, plus some change, is here somewhere or another. I checked yesterday, but 0 of them fits this fuckin’ ridiculous modus operandi. Trust me. I used to cheat off Kari’s criminology notes; they’d come in handy around the house.” 

“So you’re just giving up?” I rebutted as I stood up and rubbed some pain out of my hand. “Since everyone’s here, and the mastermind can’t be any of them, the mastermind is impossible to find?” 

“Nah, remember what Lucille said before the first trial? ‘Lack of evidence might be evidence of lack.’ It was some shit like that,” Noise continued. 

“Lack of what, exactly?” I pressed. 

“Either this mastermind’s so fuckin’ brilliant that they haven’t left a shred of evidence or documentation at all up ‘til now,” Noise deduced, “or—and this 2nd option actually seems more likely to me—this is their 1st time around.” 

“You…” I started, “you really think someone with no criminal record at all would pull something this massive and twisted as their first full-fledged crime?” 

“Think about it. Monokuma keeps makin’ shit up as he goes. The motives, the executions, and the rules—lots of possibilities have clearly been prepared, but this ain’t scripted. That shitty infinitesimal’s improvisn’. He slips up here and there, and he tries to play it off, but you can tell if you pay attention. The bombs, traps, and locks keep us within some standard deviation, but he can’t really control us, not as much as he wants us to think he can,” Noise explained. “It’s like he’s experimenting, or maybe practicing.” 

“You’ve really been putting thought into this,” I acknowledged. 

“Ain’t you?” Noise asked as he gestured to the papers scattered about the lab. 

After pondering for a moment, I decided to ask him, “Hey, Noise, do the letters _G-A_ mean anything to you?” 

“Not by themselves, why? You know an algorithm I don’t?” Noise asked. 

“I found a bloodstain in the Ultimate Moral Compass's lab where Lucille was killed. It looked like she had written the letters _G_ and _A_ in her blood as she was dying…” I trailed off. 

“A dying message, eh?” Noise practically scoffed. “Jeez, I know she was American, but did she have to write it in English? Anyway, my guess is she wasn’t able to finish whatever she was tryin’ to write.” 

“It must have been important if she used her final moments to write it,” I acknowledged. 

“What do you think she’d’ve put down? We solved the case without it,” Noise observed. “I guess the word _gay_ might’ve clued us in a bit, but that seems a bit crass for her.” 

“When I talked to her the other day, she was still trying to figure out Shiro’s motive,” I shared. “She thought it had something to do with the spy since that was the motive Monokuma provided at the time.” 

“The spy, huh?” Noise said aloud before seeming to lose himself in thought. “I wonder…” 

“Does that help?” I asked. 

“It’s nothin’,” Noise dismissed. “I’ll go check out the Ultimate Moral Compass's lab myself. We’ll see if that bifurcated bastard ain’t cleaned it up already.” 

“Do you want me to come with—”

“It’s fine,” Noise insisted. “I can tell you ain’t eaten anything today. Take care of that 1st. That way you don’t have to leave some cryptic dying message if you figure somethin’ out.” Noise extended a hand and offered me a bento box as he finished his sentence. “Don’t get the wrong idea. This shit ain’t homemade or nothin’; I just got it from the MonoMono Machine, and I already ate, so you can have it.” 

I thought of one or two wise remarks, but the pain lingering in my hand encouraged me to keep them to myself. Instead, I just accepted the lunchbox and thanked Noise for the gesture. _I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that he’s started using the MonoMono Machine again too._

I left the Ultimate Prosecuting Attorney 's lab after finishing the bento, and I returned to the dormitory to try to collect myself. On the staircase to the top floor, I encountered Takamaru, who was speaking to Ren with a sense of urgency. “Please, I’m begging you here,” the Ultimate Pilot implored. “I just want to help her.” 

“What’s up?” I asked as I stepped between the two. 

“Gale, you’re here, perfect!” Takamaru enthused. “I need a favor from you, from both of you.” 

Ren leaned back against the railing and adjusted his glasses before I asked, “Okay, what is it?” 

“I want you to steal Reiko’s heart,” Takamaru requested bluntly. “She hasn’t been herself since the last trial. You saw how she acted this morning. That’s not her. Nothing I do is getting through to her. I won’t ask how you do it or what’s off the map or anything. I just—I just want my girlfriend back.” 

I looked to Ren for any sign of approval, but he remained quiet as usual. _We may have changed Kari’s heart, but for all intents and purposes, we were too late. Ann and Lucille were killed. Kari became the blackened. Charlotte died in the crossfire. No matter how you look at it, we failed._

“I-I…” I stammered at the thought of what the consequences of another failure might be. 

“The Phantom Thieves only take requests we agree on unanimously,” Ren shared before turning his head to me. “You in?” 

“Yeah,” I found myself answering reflexively. For some reason, when he asked me, my hesitation vanished. “Let’s do it.” 

“Thank you!” Takamaru proclaimed as he wrapped his arms around me in an embrace that was a bit too tight for comfort. He had never seemed so vulnerable to me before. He moved to hug Ren as well, but when the Ultimate Phantom Thief recoiled from the gesture, Takamaru stopped short and settled on a firm handshake instead. “I’ll leave you to it. I’m going to try to get through to her the old-fashioned way in the meantime.” 

“We’ll need Yusuke and Morgana,” Ren explained after Takamaru left for the dormitory. “I’ll find Morgana. You talk to Yusuke. Meet at the hideout after breakfast.” 

Ren’s speech was matter-of-fact, but it carried a solemn determination that was almost forlorn. I imagined he shared my reservations about the repercussions of another failure. Ren ascended the staircase, and I decided to turn in for the night as well. A trip to the Metaverse would be exhausting, and I needed to prepare. 

After returning to my room, I lay down as quickly as I could and tried to hurry to sleep. Monokuma’s nighttime announcement woke me up right when I felt I was about to drift off, however, and I found my eyes fixated on the assortment of items on my table. Despite the weight of my body, I stood up and knelt by the table. 

I cupped Emiko’s voodoo doll and the identical copies of Lucille’s hairpin in my hands, and I pressed my forehead down against them. “I’m sorry,” I said lowly. “I wasn’t honest with either of you.”

I clutched the doll in one hand as I stared down at the pins. Without my realizing it, a tear fell from each of my eyes onto the accessories. “I couldn’t keep my promise to tell you about the Phantom Thieves,” I admitted, “but I won’t break my other promise.” I pressed my forehead down onto the hairpins, and this time I could feel more tears welling up. “I won’t die. I swear I won’t die here. I’ll make you another promise too. I won’t fail again. I’ll save Reiko, no matter what it takes. I won’t lose her too. Goodnight,” I bade my accessorial graveyard, and I returned to my bed. 

I awoke the next morning before Monokuma’s announcement, and I was dressed and ready before it played as well. I pocketed Emiko's voodoo doll as I left my room, and I nearly bumped into Miaya and Reiko, the former of whom was carrying a plate of food and a glass of orange juice. Miaya started to reach for her pocket, which presumably held her e-Handbook, but her full hands prevented her from greeting me properly. “Good morning,” I said to her with a smile as she nodded politely. 

Reiko moved past me, retrieved a key from her pocket, and removed a padlock from her door before swiping her e-Handbook over its adjacent scanner and holding the door ajar. Miaya gestured forward with her head as if inviting me to follow her, so I stepped after her. I repeated my greeting to Reiko as I followed Miaya into the room, but Reiko just replied, “Yeah,” before closing her door behind us. 

“Top of the morning,” Haruki greeted us while squatting on the back of the chair to which he had previously been tied. 

“ _Ciao_ ,” I replied shortly. Haruki hadn’t turned on the lights in his room yet this morning, and his white smile seemed to radiate something uncanny through the darkness. 

Miaya approached him unwarily, and she handed him his breakfast with a pleasant smile. Haruki rested the plate on his knees while holding the juice in one hand as he began to eat with the other. “So, have you decided what to do with me yet?” he chuckled. Our hesitation was the only answer he needed. “Figures, you’re all just sheep without a shepherd now,” he condescended. “Let me guess. You elected Reiko as the new president, but she turned it down, right?” 

“What’s it to you?” I asked. 

“It’s too bad, really. I think Reiko would have given me another chance,” Haruki mused. “Aside from Noise, Ren, and Hachise, the rest of you are just followers, but no one really trusts any of them more than they trust me. I just happened to kill someone before they did.” 

“You don’t know any of them if you think that,” I rebutted. 

“Ha, that’s a hoot,” Haruki chortled after another bite of his food. “If Noise were in charge, he would probably try to figure out a way to make me kill myself.” 

“We don’t want to kill you, Haruki,” Usami said on Miaya’s behalf now that the Ultimate Therapist’s hands were free to use her e-Handbook again. “We’re trying to protect you as well.” 

“Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha- _ha-ha-ha_!” Haruki nearly dropped his breakfast as he burst into maniacal laughter and fell backward in his chair. “That’s _rich_! Miaya, you might just give me a run for my money with jokes like that!” 

“I mean it,” Usami pressed. “If you kill anyone else, you’ll be executed. This is for your own good as much as ours.” 

“Is that so?” Haruki inquired with a sly grin as he rolled onto his side seductively. “Do you really believe that?” 

“Haruki…” I started. “I want to ask you about something.” 

“Oh? And you’ll get Noise and Takamaru to come kick me again if you don’t like my answer, right?” Haruki guessed. 

“No, I’ll leave it alone, but if you want off this boat, and part of me still wants to believe you do, it might be in your best interest to help me,” I explained. “Anyway, it’s up to you.”

“I’m listening,” Haruki prompted. 

“Before she died, Lucille was trying to deduce the identity of Monokuma’s spy,” I explained, “and she seemed pretty confident that either the spy was unkillable or being threatened with something worse than death.” 

“And?” Haruki continued. 

“Well, about Monokuma, he’s not, like, holding your sister hostage or anything to get you to cooperate, is he?” I asked. 

Half of Haruki’s smile turned down into a scowl. “If my sister were in any danger, the first person to stupidly attack Monokuma and unknowingly jump to his death would’ve been me, not Kudo-sensei,” Haruki growled. 

“Alright, I believe you,” I agreed. 

“Huh?” Haruki wondered. “If my sister were a hostage, you know I’d just lie to protect her, right?” Haruki pressed. 

“I’m believing you because I don’t have any choice,” I continued. “I’m out of ideas. I can’t solve everything by myself, so I need to get help from my friends.” 

“ _Friends_?” Haruki exclaimed before rolling around in hysterical laughter. “Keep this up, and I’ll die laughing!” Haruki shrieked. “You don’t wanna be the next blackened, do you?” 

“If you could die from laughing, you would’ve by now,” I sighed. “Then I only have one more question. Are you unkillable, or is anyone else on this boat unkillable?” 

Haruki pondered my inquiry for a moment before responding, “Actually, as a matter of fact, I _can_ think of a few people on this ship who can’t be killed.”

“Who?” I asked. 

“I’m pretty sure you can figure that out on your own,” Haruki taunted. “Nobody will believe you if you hear it from me, but I’ll tell you this much. You’re only stuck on this because you think being unkillable is impossible, but it’s not. You’re probably mistaking ‘unkillable’ for ‘immortal,’” Haruki snickered. “Anyway, if I’m right, I don’t think you need to worry about it too much. You should focus more on how to wrest control of the ship from Monokuma.” 

“Thanks, Haruki,” I told him sincerely, “I’ll figure it out. I won’t let you down.” 

“What’s got you actin’ all grand all of a sudden?” Haruki muttered. “I don’t like it.” 

Ignoring that last comment, Miaya and I left Haruki alone in the room. Miaya closed the padlock behind her. The Ultimate Therapist sighed audibly, but she grabbed my wrist to stop me when I started walking toward the restaurant. “Can you hold on for just a second?” she asked me vicariously through her avatar. 

“Yeah, what’s up?” I asked. 

“I went through an English dictionary and some simple psychological analyses, and I have a handful of possibilities of what Lucille’s dying message might have meant,” Usami continued. 

“Nice, what’d you find?” I inquired. 

“Well, since she’s American, I thought she might have been talking about the American state of Georgia, which can be abbreviated as GA, but I checked, and there’s nothing about Georgia that seems like it could be a clue,” Usami explained, “so I figured it was probably incomplete since ‘G-A’ doesn’t seem to mean anything else on its own.” 

“Alright,” I followed. 

“The English words I think she most likely meant, given our situation and everything that’s happened, were probably _game_ , _galley_ , _gavel_ , _gang_ , _gas_ , and, um, well,” Miaya seemed to hesitate before she typed the last one into her e-Handbook, “ _gale_.” 

“ _Gale_ ?” I asked almost disbelievingly. “Why would she write my name down?” I wondered aloud. _Did she think I was the spy?_

“Keep in mind that’s just one possibility!” Miaya frantically typed into her e-Handbook for Usami to say. “Since you weren’t her killer, it’s not likely she’d write down your name! We might have gotten the wrong idea if we’d found your name written in her blood!” 

“What about the others?” I asked as I found myself unable to wrap my head around that possibility. 

“Well, Monokuma keeps calling our situation a _game_ , so that one seemed obvious, but I’m not sure why she’d point that out. A _galley_ is a type of ship, but I think she might have just written _ship_ or _boat_ if she meant that since those have fewer letters. The word _gavel_ might be related to the trials or judgments; maybe there’s something about Monokuma’s gavel that would help us take control of the ship. A _gang_ is a group of criminals; perhaps she was saying there’s a particular gang behind this instead of just one mastermind. Finally, _gas_ is an abbreviation of _gasoline_ , a common fuel source, which could be in reference to the ship’s own fuel as another hint of how to take control of the boat,” Usami concluded Miaya’s explanation, and the Ultimate Therapist waited expectantly for my response. 

“With that many possibilities, I don’t really know how to narrow down what she really meant,” I admitted. “Still, narrowing it down to just that few is pretty incredible,” I complimented. “Thanks, Miaya.” 

“There is also some bad news,” Usami confessed as she kicked up some virtual dirt on the screen of Miaya’s handbook. 

“Well, don’t keep me in suspense,” I prompted. 

“I used the computer in the Ultimate Forensic Criminalist's lab to narrow down the possibilities,” Usami explained as she suddenly donned a lab coat and glasses, “but while I was there, I found out something was wrong. All of Kari’s position data is gone.”

“It just vanished?” I asked in surprise. 

“No, someone manually deleted it from within the lab,” Miaya explained through her avatar, “I was able to verify that much, but they were careful about it. I used the lab’s equipment to check for fingerprints, footprints, hair follicles, you name it…”

“But there was nothing,” I guessed. “Was it Monokuma?” 

“I don’t think so,” Usami said on Miaya’s behalf. “Monokuma could just delete the data remotely since that computer is connected to this ship’s network, but it was deleted from within the lab. Besides, Monokuma’s hands aren’t really suited to using a keyboard, and I don’t think the mastermind would risk coming to the lab themselves.” 

“Then why would anyone do that?” I wondered. 

“There must have been something about where people were at certain times that would have incriminated them,” Usami extrapolated. 

“Then either someone is planning a murder,” I assumed, “or the spy is covering their tracks to avoid getting found out.” 

“But Haruki’s the spy, right?” Usami clarified for Miaya. “He couldn’t have gotten out of Reiko’s room to delete the data. Even if he got out, he wouldn’t have been able to lock himself back in, would he?” 

“That is definitely problematic,” I sighed. 

“Anyway,” Usami punctuated, “I haven’t told anyone else yet. I don’t want to cause a panic since I’m not sure what’s going on, but I thought you should know.” 

“Thank—”

“Good morning, everyone!” Monokuma’s morning announcement interrupted me. “It is now 7 a.m., and nighttime is officially over. Time to rise and shine! Get ready to greet another beee-yutiful day!” 

Hachise exited her room into the hallway with an exaggerated yawn. She rubbed her left forearm over her eyes as she covered her yawn with her right hand. “Good morning, Galey!” she practically yelped with apparent excitement and she lunged forward and threw her arms around my neck. “It’s unusual to see you awake so early. You weren’t up all night with Miaya, were you?” she breathed into my ear. 

“Come on,” I snickered. “Don’t you think you’re taking it a bit far this time?” 

“Oh, I know,” Hachise chuckled. “I watched you on the map last night, so I would’ve known if you’d snuck off with some tramp.” 

Miaya’s face turned red, and she frustratedly typed into her handbook before Usami exclaimed, “Who are you calling a tramp?” as puffs of steam emerged from the cartoonish avatar’s ears. 

“I’m just kidding with you, Mia,” Hachise chuckled before she let go of me and skipped toward the restaurant for breakfast. 

“This is starting to feel like a trashy harem manga,” I sighed. 

“I don’t like the way she treats you,” Usami declared on Miaya’s behalf. 

“Huh?” I voiced, “Not you too, Miaya, don’t tell me you’re jealous.” 

Miaya almost dropped her e-Handbook before she slapped her hand into her forehead. She started to type something on her handbook, but then she deleted it before typing something else. “She’s got to be up to something,” Usami said bluntly. “I think acting that way toward you is part of some kind of plan she might have.” 

“I think she’s trying to stick close to me because I’m a pushover,” I admitted, “and she thinks I can give her a foothold into everyone else’s trust, but there’s still a lot she won’t tell me, so I know she isn’t serious about acting that way. I think she’s just treating it like a game to see how far she can push my buttons.” 

“That does seem like something she’d do,” Usami sighed. 

Miaya and I followed Hachise to the restaurant for breakfast. Noise and Ren joined us shortly, and Takamaru and Reiko appeared a little later, but neither of them had much to say. After we finished eating, Ren pulled me aside. “Yusuke hasn’t left his lab,” Morgana told me as he poked his head out of Ren’s bag. “If you’re gonna talk to him, you should go now. Meet us at the hideout afterward.” Ren just nodded to punctuate Morgana’s request, and I silently agreed. 

I checked the map on my e-Handbook to verify, and sure enough, Yusuke was alone in the Ultimate Artist's lab. I stopped by my room to grab something before carrying it downstairs to his lab. I knocked a few times on his door, but he didn’t answer. After waiting a minute or so, I decided to let myself in. 

Yusuke was sitting alone on a wooden stool in the dark. His face was buried in the palms of his hands, but he wasn’t crying. He was eerily motionless, almost like a statue. In the corner, within arm’s reach of the Ultimate Artist, was a spectacular oil painting. The subject was none other than Ann Takamaki, the Ultimate Model. Her flawless form was captured perfectly by Yusuke’s masterful strokes. Every curve, every shade, every angle was both picturesque yet inexplicably evocative. 

The likeness was practically photographic, but it captured something more. A unique style had found its way into every stroke. That style made me believe that no one but Yusuke could have forged this masterpiece. The piece was like staring at Ann, but it was more than that. I wasn’t just looking at Ann; I was looking into her. It was the smile on her face when she shared her cake with me after hours. It was her subtle frustration at the tightness of her Phantom Thief outfit. It was her slowness to trust Kudo-sensei and her faith in her friends. It was her determination to prevent further casualties when she believed the Phantom Thieves were the true targets of this killing game. 

The masterpiece was stained, however, by a gash of pink paint that curved around the subject’s thin neck. The grotesque color contrasted violently against the empty, black background. The stroke showed none of the masterful precision or care that characterized the rest of the work, and though the paint was surely dry, it still looked as though it could still be dripping further down her exposed body. 

The mere sight nearly reduced me to tears, and everything I had been preparing to tell Yusuke melted away in an instant. “Yusuke,” I started, “talk to me.” 

“What’s left to say?” he droned after a long moment without turning to face me. 

“I can’t possibly begin to understand what you must be going through,” I admitted, “so I won’t try, but I don’t need to understand your feelings to accept them.” 

“Please, do not say that,” Yusuke offered. “No one should have to accept this kind of despair.” 

“Then don’t,” I replied shortly. “I’m not telling you not to feel what you’re feeling. I’m just here to tell you that Reiko needs help. Takamaru wants us to change her heart so she’ll accept the position as president. We need to snap her out of it before she sinks even further into despair, but we can’t do that without you, so I’m here to snap _you_ out of it.” 

“Do you really believe grief to be something so trivial as to be ‘snapped out’ of?” Yusuke reprimanded as he finally sat up to face me. 

“No,” I answered as I offered him the golden katana, the first prize I had won from the MonoMono Machine, “so we’ll steal your heart too if we have to.” 

Yusuke took the weapon from me. He noticed how the gold paint stained his hands to the touch, and he briefly unsheathed it to examine its edge. “This object is worthless,” he observed. 

“It only needs to look real to work in the Metaverse, right?” I snickered. “Come on, Fox. Joker’s waiting on us.” 

“Very well,” Yusuke said with something that was almost a grin, “Ranger.” 

Yusuke and I met Ren and Morgana at the Ultimate Phantom Thief's lab, as agreed. “Alright,” I started as I sat on a barstool and opened the Metaverse Navigator on my e-Handbook, “how do we get to Reiko’s Palace?” 

“Well normally, we’d need a name, a place, and a distortion to enter someone’s Palace,” Morgana explained as he jumped from Ren’s bag onto the bar, “but Reiko is different from Kari. I checked the Metaverse, and she doesn’t actually _have_ a Palace.” 

“Hold up,” I wondered aloud. “Doesn’t that mean we can’t steal her heart, or can she have a Treasure without a Palace?” 

“Yeah, not everyone with a distorted heart has a Palace,” Morgana explained. 

 “The Phantom Thieves once took many requests to change the hearts of such individuals,” Yusuke clarified, “though we did so by means of Mementos.” 

“I thought you said Kari’s Palace was all that remained of Mementos after you destroyed the…” I trailed off as I failed to remember. “What was it?”

“The Holy Grail,” Ren finished. 

“Right, yeah, can you guys remind me how King Arthur’s cup of Christ’s blood ended up in the collective unconscious of metropolitan Japan?” I wondered. “I could have sworn it would be in the Vatican or the Ark of the Covenant or something.”

“Kari’s Palace was a branch of the remnants of Mementos,” Morgana sighed without answering my question, “just like the old Palaces were branches of the original Mementos.” 

“Are there more?” Yusuke asked. 

“It’s faster if I just show you,” Morgana conceded. “We should still be able to enter the remnants safely from here. Just use Reiko's full name: Reiko Izanami.” 

“Candidate found,” my app’s synthetic voice affirmed, and my reality shifted until the hideout was replaced by a strange landscape. 

 _Floating archipelago_ were the words that crossed my mind when I beheld the distorted reality at hand. Chunks of rock hovered in midair above a bottomless abyss. Crumbling bridges wound many of them into a labyrinthine network, and broken railroads clung to the centers of these pathways. In the distance, there was a massive, stone building whose structure reminded me of a ruin I once saw in Italy. Closer at hand, dozens of masked, humanoid goliaths with hunched backs and colorless, featureless bodies prowled along the fragmented tracks. No horizon graced the abysmal landscape as the starless sky was just as black as the void below. Just like our time in Kari’s Palace, my outfit was replaced with dramatic Western clothes, and the Phantom Thieves’ outfits changed as well. 

“Welcome to the remnants of Mementos,” Mona declared. He gestured vaguely around us before continuing, “As you can see, not much is left, but it’s basically still the same ever-changing subway we navigated before. Unfortunately, since most of it's gone, we have to be careful about where we enter from. The hideout is safe, luckily, but I can’t guarantee anywhere else, and if you hop in carelessly, you’ll fall into the abyss.” Mona looked to me as he finished his point. 

“What?” I asked. 

“Mona is concerned that you may attempt to enter Mementos recklessly on your own,” Fox clarified. 

“If you’re worried, you could just say so,” I snickered. 

“I’m not worried!” Mona asserted. “I just don’t have time to stage a rescue if you do something stupid!”

“We should start looking,” Joker stated. 

“Oh, right, yeah, how do we steal Reiko’s heart, exactly?” I asked. 

“We steal her Treasure, just like with Kari, but it won’t be anything grand like you’d find in a Palace,” Mona explained. “Since her cognition is distorted, it’s likely she has a Shadow somewhere here in Mementos. Her Shadow will have her Treasure with it. We just have to beat the Shadow and take the Treasure. Lucky for you, I can sense the cognitive distortions surrounding her Shadow, so finding her should be a cinch. Please, feel free to hold your applause.”

“There’s a lot of ground to cover,” I admitted as I stared at the seemingly endless skyscape around us. 

“That won’t be a problem either,” Mona assured me with a wink before suddenly, in a puff of smoke, he became a full-sized, rectangular black van, complete with feline ears, a tail, and blue headlights reminiscent of his comically large eyes. I backpedaled with surprise at our navigator’s transformation, but Joker and Fox looked unfazed as they boarded the van. 

“Are you quite certain this is safe considering the state of this area’s ground, or rather lack thereof?” Fox inquired. 

“Why bother asking after you’ve already gotten in?” Mona retorted through the van’s radio. 

“You coming?” Joker asked as he gestured toward the door that he had left open for me before revving Mona’s engine from the driver’s seat. 

_Why does anything at all surprise me anymore?_

The ride was bumpy to say the least. Uneven paths and unwarned jumps from surface to surface kept me clinging to my seat and the door handle for dear life. The occasional masked goliath lunging toward our vehicle didn’t do my resting heart rate any favors, but Joker skillfully steered away from the creatures I assumed to be more Shadows, not unlike the guards in Kari’s Palace. Fox was clearly nauseated by the drive but struggled to maintain the image of composure. 

Mona’s voice guided us through the grueling path from the van’s radio until, suddenly, the vehicle screeched to a halt. Despite my place in the backseat, I was certain for a split second that my face would collide with the windshield. I opened my mouth to protest, but before I could say anything, Joker exited the vehicle and proclaimed, “We’re here.” I could have sworn I saw Fox swallow unhappily before exiting the passenger’s side. I groaned audibly and wobbled out of the van. 

Joker was staring intently upward, and I followed his gaze diagonally to another chunk of rock in the air. The rails on the patch of land beneath us extended off the ground and then abruptly ended as if they had been torn from the rest of the track. What I assumed to be the rest of the track was suspended in the air, and it swirled unnaturally around the patch of land that had Joker’s attention. A thick miasma clouded the air around that stone. 

“I’m guessing she’s up there,” I said. 

“Yeah,” Mona confirmed as he transformed back into a cartoonish cat burglar, “that’s the source of her distortion.” 

“How do we get up there? Can you change into a helicopter or something?” I asked Mona. 

“No,” Mona sighed, “it’s just the bus.” 

“We would not have endured that torturous drive if we had the alternative of flying,” Fox stated. 

“Could we use Joker’s giant Persona then?” I proposed. 

Joker seemed to consider it for a moment before Mona interrupted, “No way! Not unless we want every Shadow in Mementos on our tails! Reiko’s Shadow could just escape in the confusion!” 

“Speaking of which…” Fox’s gaze was fixed on the airborne distortion as well. 

I looked back to the floating island, where I saw Reiko, or what I assumed to be Reiko’s Shadow, standing on the stone’s ledge. Unlike Kari’s Shadow, this apparition was dressed just like the real Reiko, but a thick miasma radiated from her, and her eyes glowed a bright yellow that caused her to appear distinctly inhuman. “So, you did come…” she sulked. “I thought you might try something…” 

“Reiko!” I shouted almost involuntarily. “We’re here to help!” 

“Go away…” she groaned. “No one can help…” 

“We’ve got company!” Mona declared as a pair of the featureless Shadows prowling around the area closed in on us from behind. 

“There is no time for this!” Fox spat as he turned to face the intruders. 

“Let’s beat ‘em quick and go straight for our target!” Mona shouted. 

The Shadows melted into umbral goop before reforming as a pair of monsters. The creature on the left had a humanoid shape, but its body was covered in red scales. A reptilian tail extended from the base of its spine, and purple, fin-like wings grew from its back. A scaly, yellowish underbelly covered most of the front of its torso, and it extended down the underside of its tail. Its head was decorated with a black, hair-like headdress and a silver visor complete with conical horns. 

The creature on the right was more humanoid-looking. Its androgynous figure was mostly shrouded by a hooded, red cloak, and its loins were covered with a matching girded cloth. Its white-and-purple-striped legs matched the purplish tone of the rest of its skin, and its face featured skull-like markings that reminded me of a Halloween decoration. From an extended hand, the creature dangled a small, paper puppet with a skeletal design and square features. 

“It’s weak to bless attacks!” Mona declared as Joker focused his attention on the skeletal Shadow. 

“Cybele!” Joker beckoned as he summoned a Persona to his side. This one took the form of a blue woman whose beautiful figure was decorated with white markings. She held a pair of identical rapiers in a back-handed grip, and a trio of white hoops floated around her torso and legs. She had empty white eyes and pointed ears beneath a head of long, straight hair as black as the abyss around us, and a pair of lengthy, brown horns extended from her forehead behind her back. 

At Cybele’s behest, a flash of light descended in a double-helix pattern onto each of the creatures. The skeletal one dissolved into darkness instantly, and the reptilian creature recoiled briefly as Fox stepped to the forefront. “Do it!” Joker declared before Fox summoned his own Persona. 

“Kamu Susano-o!” the Ultimate Artist cried as the ethereal swordsman I had only briefly seen before materialized beside him. Fox drew his golden katana and rushed forward as his Persona mirrored his movements with his own massive sword. The two swung their blades across their reptilian foe, and the creature dissolved into smoke. 

“Oh no! We got distracted! Guys, look!” Mona shouted as he took my attention from the battle back to Reiko’s Shadow. The Shadow stepped forward off the ledge, and she began to fall down into the abyss beneath us. 

“Odysseus!” I shouted as I summoned my Persona. 

Mona beckoned, “Mercurius!” as he summoned his other self in tandem, and our Personas conjured a flurry of wind beneath Reiko’s Shadow in an attempt to carry her back to _terra_ _firma_. The Shadow simply rolled off the gusts and deliberately continued her descent. 

“Reiko!” a familiar voice called as the sound of footsteps sprinted past Mona and me. My eyes barely believed what they saw as Takamaru, in his normal clothes, dashed over the side of our tiny island and leapt after the phantom of his falling girlfriend. 

“Takamaru! What is he doing here?” Mona screamed as the lot of us darted to the edge of our island and stared down at the descending interloper, who was reaching for his girlfriend’s Shadow in freefall. 

“Satana—”

“Don’t!” Mona warned Joker before he could summon his colossal Persona. 

“He’ll die!” our leader snapped at Mona in retort, but I didn’t hear Mona’s reply. 

My eyes were affixed in shock at what was unfolding below me. Takamaru had caught Reiko’s Shadow in midair, but the two were still freefalling uncontrolled into the void. I cursed my own powerlessness as I wondered how this could even be real. Forget not changing Reiko’s heart in time. This was a catastrophe unlike anything I had feared. 

“Icarus!” the sound of Takamaru’s voice snapped me out of my horror. A burst of blue flames enveloped the Ultimate Pilot and the Shadow. A machine materialized beneath the falling couple. Despite being no larger than Odysseus, the apparition had the unmistakable, triangular shape of a military stealth bomber. Feathery designs were emblazoned onto its wings, and robotic arms shaped like rotary cannons extended from the bottom of the aircraft. The glass of its miniature cockpit covered the impression of a human head whose facial features were covered by the signature helmet and oxygen mask of a fighter pilot. 

Almost faster than I could see, the aircraft caught Takamaru and Reiko’s Shadow in its mechanical arms and carried them up to the island on which we stood. Seeing him up close, Takamaru’s outfit had been replaced with a nearly-black camouflage uniform. A helmet matching his other self’s rested atop his head, but no oxygen mask covered his mouth. 

“What the hell’s going on?” Takamaru asked no one in particular as his eyes darted between us and his aircraft in disbelief. 

“Takamaru! Get away from her! That’s not Reiko!” Mona shouted back. 

“Huh?” Takamaru responded dumbfounded as the miasma surrounding Reiko’s Shadow swirled around her, and her body transformed. Now, Reiko’s Shadow was a tie-dye-skinned man wearing nothing but a white thong, matching boots and gloves, and a red shawl. Its mouth and eyes were closed as if it were asleep, and it sported a full head of spiky, white hair. The Shadow wore a thyrsus with a golden, spiral rod tipped with a white pinecone on a string around its neck. “Reiko?” Takamaru asked the creature before a burst of lightning stemmed from the Shadow and surged through his body. 

The Ultimate Pilot’s aerodynamic Persona dissipated, and Takamaru himself collapsed. “Go! Persona!” Joker cried as Cybele rematerialized, and she summoned a spiral of spectral blue vines and butterflies that momentarily surrounded Takamaru and miraculously healed him. 

“I feel…” Takamaru panted, “much better…” 

“Healing skills won’t help! He’s exhausted from awakening to his Persona!” Mona diagnosed. “We need to get him out of here!”

“More are on the way!” Fox cried as he gestured toward a wave of incoming Shadows. 

“Joker, we can’t keep Takamaru safe in an all-out brawl! We should retreat!” I insisted. 

“Let’s get outta here!” Mona agreed as he transformed back into a van. Joker dashed past Reiko’s Shadow and carried Takamaru, who was barely clinging to consciousness, back to Mona as Fox and I boarded the van. 

“Step on it!” I yelled as Shadows began to surround us from all sides. Joker slammed his foot on the gas, and Mona leapt over the Shadows around us before speeding off. 

It took more reckless driving than I would have cared for, but before long, we were back where we started. “Returning to real world,” the Metaverse Navigator’s synthetic voice told us when I activated the app again. “Thank you for your hard work.” 

Ren, Yusuke, Morgana, and I practically collapsed onto the floor of the Ultimate Phantom Thief's lab. Takamaru had passed out in the van, and now he lay unconscious on the floor beside us. “How did,” Morgana panted, “he follow us?” 

“Was he perhaps too close to us when we entered the Metaverse?” Yusuke brainstormed between breaths. 

“If that was it, he couldn’t have kept up with us when we started driving,” Morgana pointed out. 

“Did he maybe stow away in the van?” I wondered aloud. 

“I think I would know if he had stowed away in my body!” Morgana argued. 

“Then we’ll have to ask him when he wakes up,” I supposed. Ren nodded in agreement. 

“He most certainly is not a veteran Metaverse user,” Yusuke surmised. “He only just awakened to his Persona, and he appeared to not know the difference between Reiko’s Shadow and the real Reiko.” 

We decided to wait in the Ultimate Phantom Thief's lab until Takamaru woke up. Luckily, the café-themed lab was complete with refreshments, and the Ultimate Pilot’s nap gave us time to put some wind back beneath our wings. 

After a while, Takamaru awoke with an emphatic stretch. “Hu-wah, what a crazy dream…” he yawned. “Huh, how’d I end up in here?” 

“That was not a—”

“Takamaru, what do you remember from your dream?” I interrupted Yusuke. 

“Uh, I dunno. It was one of those falling dreams. Fuckin’ gravity, even in my sleep, it’s always bringin’ me down. I think maybe you were in it. Reiko was there. I don’t remember who else,” he explained. 

I pulled Ren aside and whispered, “What should we do?”

“We can’t just explain the Metaverse to him if he doesn’t remember going there,” Morgana whispered back from Ren’s bag. 

“Okay, Takamaru, I’ll be straight with you,” I started as I turned back around to face the pilot. “How did you get to the Metaverse?” 

“Huh? I don’t play _Metalcurse_ ,” Takamaru said confusedly. “Noise was playing it in the arcade, but I only play flight sims and historical RTSs.” When we seemed uncertain of how to respond, he continued, “Is this some kind of psych eval? How did I end up here?” 

“You came to ask us about our progress with changing Reiko’s heart,” Yusuke lied. “Unfortunately, we have nothing to report so far. The endeavor could take us another day or two.” 

“Oh yeah, I think I remember now. Sorry for fallin’ asleep on you guys,” Takamaru apologized. “Guess I forgot my afternoon coffee. Maybe I should just head to bed.” Takamaru saw himself out of the lab, and he left the rest of us puzzled. 

“Why’d you lie to him?” Morgana asked Yusuke. “What if he ends up accidentally wandering into the Metaverse again and gets hurt?” 

“If he truly does not remember, how are we supposed to explain it to him? We cannot return today to show him; we are far too fatigued. He would likely accuse us of trying to prank him,” Yusuke explained defeatedly. 

“And if we use you talking as proof, he’ll just freak out,” I agreed. “Maybe we can try to explain it to him after we steal Reiko’s Treasure, but if he knows now, he’ll come along whether we let him or not, and he’ll just pull another crazy stunt.” 

“Yeah, I guess we need to be careful about this, and what he did today, well, wasn’t,” Morgana reluctantly agreed. 

Following Takamaru’s example, the Phantom Thieves and I retired for the evening. Exhausted, I returned straight to my room and took a shower. I managed to sleep through Monokuma’s nighttime announcement for a change, but the morning announcement roused me as usual. “Good morning, everyone! It is now 7 a.m., and nighttime is officially over. Time to rise and shine! Get ready to greet another beee-yutiful day!” 

I greeted the day with the resolve to return to the remnants of Mementos, but the day greeted me with a literal kick to the head. As I stepped outside, Haruki’s gargantuan shoe landed squarely atop my head and knocked me to the ground as the Ultimate Circus Performer backflipped off my cranium. “ _Bonjour_!” Haruki cackled as a throwing knife fell from his sleeve and into his hand. I flinched instinctively as he hurled the knife through the air, but the blade flew over me and toward another target. I turned my head to see Hachise, who sidestepped to avoid the blade. 

“Stay down!” she ordered me as she raised a crossbow similar to Kagami’s and pointed it at Haruki. She fired several arrows from the weapon, which reloaded itself using some kind of repeater, but Haruki bobbed and weaved around the missiles before cutting the last one out of the air with another knife. 

“I pulled harder stunts before I could read!” Haruki mocked as he produced two handfuls of knives, whose blades he held between his fingers. “Now _this_ is a stunt!” 

“What the hell are you doing?” I shouted. 

“Galey, get back in your room,” Hachise instructed without taking her eyes off Haruki. “I’ll take care of this.” 

“Oh, will you now? Let’s see then!” the clown exclaimed as he hurled all of his knives at Hachise at once. The swirling cloud of daggers covered the breadth of the hallway and left practically no room for evasion. Hachise, however, sidestepped again and turned her body with incredible precision. Most of the blades flew around her, and the two that struck barely grazed her shin and shoulder. Another blade, which had been aimed at her neck, was now protruding from her crossbow, which she had used to block the projectile. 

Without so much as flinching, Hachise discarded her own weapon and produced an aerosol can from underneath her shirt. Another apparatus, which looked to use a cigarette lighter and some kind of battery as its base, was crudely taped to the can. “Galey, get back inside!” Hachise yelled this time as she pulled a string from the can with her teeth and tossed it at Haruki. 

I rolled backward into my room as Haruki leapt into the air over the can. A high-pitched hiss flooded the hallway for only a second before the can exploded violently. Though I had only just barely rolled back into my room, my open door miraculously shielded me from the blast, although the door itself struck my knees hard enough to make me shout an expletive. 

Piggybacking on the force of the explosion, Haruki flipped in midair and ran sideways across the wall down the hallway toward Hachise. The Ultimate Survivor tore the bandages off her left arm to reveal another concealable mechanism wrapped around what remained of her forearm. Hachise pointed her wounded arm at Haruki and pulled a wire from the back of the mechanism with her teeth. Apparently acting as some kind of spring-loaded weapon, the device fired a dozen sewing needles at Haruki, who covered his face as the needles instead stuck into his arms. 

Hachise backpedaled to avoid Haruki’s landing as he pounced at her from the wall, but the Ultimate Circus Performer sprung forward with another knife, again produced from his sleeve, and slashed Hachise across the cheek. “You’re gonna kill each other!” I protested as Haruki continued swinging blades at the Ultimate Survivor, who frantically evaded blows and continued to backpedal. 

“Oh, I’m not gonna kill her!” Haruki cackled. “I’m just gonna hurt her really, _really_ bad!” 

“We’ll see about that,” Hachise mumbled before stomping down on Haruki’s foot. The blow stopped Haruki’s fluid motions in their tracks, and Hachise followed up by kneeing him in the groin. A muffled yelp escaped Haruki’s mouth before Hachise punched him in the throat. Haruki nearly fell to his knees as he clutched his neck, and Hachise took the opportunity to regain some distance. 

Clinging to what remained of the bandages on her left arm, Hachise fled down the hall and around the corner. I tried to stand to follow her, but my damaged knees buckled underneath me. “Oh no you don’t!” Haruki’s damaged voice cracked as he called after Hachise, but Noise and Ren turned around the corner of the hall and blocked his path. 

“Damn, looks like you’ve still got balls,” Noise sighed. “I heard you shriek, and I hoped she’d chopped ‘em off.” 

“I get the feeling you won’t let me follow her,” Haruki snickered. “Any reason you’re protecting that scoundrel?”

“Nah,” Noise admitted as he took a switchblade from his pocket and twirled it skillfully between his fingers, “I just want an excuse to beat the asymptotic fuck outta you.” 

“I’ll cut every one of you down if that’s what it takes,” Haruki warned as he pointed a knife forward. 

“Shame you killed the 1 bitch b such that b could beat me,” Noise retorted, “I’m gonna make you beg her ghost to save you.” 

“And you?” Haruki asked as he nodded to Ren. 

Ren drew the curved dagger I’d seen him use in the Metaverse from his bag and widened his stance. “Come at me, clown shoes,” he taunted. 

Haruki rushed toward the two boys in his path and parried a pair of forward thrusts from their blades. Noise tripped Haruki with a sweeping kick, but the Ultimate Class Clown regained his footing immediately and cartwheeled past the duo. “Get your ass back here!” Noise screamed as he began to chase the runaway clown. Ren followed after them, and I forced myself to my feet to give chase. 

As I turned around the corner after them, I saw Noise and Ren trip over something invisible as Haruki reached the other end of the hall. “Watch out for the tripwire!” Haruki mocked as another of Hachise’s aerosol cans sprayed a pink gas onto Noise and Ren from the floor. The two choked and coughed for a moment before collapsing completely. 

“You son of a bitch…” Noise groaned before losing consciousness. 

As quickly as it appeared, the gas dispersed into the air without a trace. I rushed to Ren’s and Noise’s sides and quickly checked their pulses, both of which, to my relief, were still strong. _It was just knockout gas. Hachise must’ve set the trap for Haruki._ Without wasting any more time, I dashed down the hall and turned around another corner. I reached the hall connected to the restaurant. Hachise was leaning against the door to the restaurant, breathing heavily through her inhaler, and tightly clutching something that looked like a joystick in the same hand. 

Haruki stood at the other end of the hall, and he drew the blades in his hands across one another dramatically as if sharpening them. “Scared the others will interrupt our playdate again if you go in there?” Haruki chortled as he walked slowly toward Hachise. “Go ahead: the more, the merrier.” 

“Sorry, Haruki,” Hachise muttered, “you’re too dangerous to let roam free.” 

“Hey, Kettle, name’s Pot!” Haruki snapped back. 

“You know those bombs that blew up my classmates’ ship?” Hachise snickered halfway to herself. “Well, I did some tests, and it turns out they’re aboard this one too.” 

“Yeah, they blow us to smithereens if we don’t guess the blackened right. You’ve already killed too many students that way,” Haruki retorted with another few steps forward. 

“I only found them here cuz I knew to look for them,” Hachise admitted, “but they give off some faint electromagnetic interference. We know Monokuma triggers the bombs remotely, so I’m pretty sure he uses an electromagnetic signal to trigger them. There’s plenty of equipment in Kari’s lab with electromagnets, and these walls are metal, so there’s no reason we couldn’t make a device to spoof that signal.” 

“What’s that got to do with—” Haruki stopped dead in his tracks. “You wouldn’t.” 

“You said it yourself, right?” Hachise giggled. “I already did.” 

“Hachise! Stop!” I called. “If you kill him—”

“It won’t kill him if he dodges!” Hachise cackled as her face suddenly sprung to life, and she pressed down on a Monokuma-shaped button atop her joystick. A deafening firestorm erupted from the wall a few meters from Haruki. I couldn’t see if he reacted in time. Though I was clear of the flames, the force of the blast felt like it could have knocked the teeth from my mouth. My body crashed against something, probably the floor or a wall, and I blacked out. 

I awoke sometime later in one of the infirmary’s beds. Two students came into focus at the center of my foggy vision: Noise and Miaya. The infirmary’s once-tolerable lighting now felt blinding, and a high-pitched ringing clouded my hearing. “Hey, look, told you he was monotonic,” Noise told Miaya as he seemed to notice my waking. “Guess gettin’ knocked out doesn’t count as sleeping in class. That’s a relief.” 

“Gale, can you hear us?” Usami’s synthetic voice asked through Miaya’s e-Handbook. 

“Y-yeah…” I stuttered. “What happened…” 

“You got caught in the blast Hachise set off,” Noise reminded me. “We’re lucky she didn’t fuckin’ turn the ship’s course into a function whose limit as x approaches infinity is negative infinity.” 

“Can you not…” I stammered, “math? My head…” 

“You suffered a mild concussion,” said Usami, now wearing a virtual lab coat and stethoscope. “You’ll be fine, but you need rest, and you can’t move around yet.” 

My gaze fell sideways, and I saw the infirmary’s other bed was also occupied. Haruki lay unconscious atop the covers and was wrapped from head to toe in bandages. One of his legs was elevated in a cast, and the other was in a brace. Both of his arms were in casts slung around his neck, and his neck was also braced. The only skin I could see was his face, and a patch of his cheek was badly burned. “He looks…” I started before I suddenly forgot how I was going to finish the sentence. 

“He’ll live, but he ain’t in good shape,” Noise sighed. “He’s got a much worse concussion, 2nd- and 3rd-degree burns, spinal damage in his neck and back, and fractures in all 4 limbs. I was still out cold when it happened, but apparently the others only stabilized him cuz Hachise helped, ironically. He’s got broken ribs too + internal bruising, but by some miracle his vitals didn’t take any serious damage.” 

“I can’t…” I started as my vision started to blur again. 

“Get some more rest,” Usami gently suggested on Miaya’s behalf. “We convinced Monokuma to alter the rules, so you can sleep here instead of the dorms now.” 

Miaya’s permission lifted the burden of consciousness from my shoulders. 

“Good morning, everyone! It is now 7 a.m., and nighttime is officially over. Time to rise and shine! Get ready to greet another beee-yutiful day!” 

_Would it have killed him to record more than one morning greeting, or at least a less annoying one?_

My next awakening was met with substantially more clarity than my first. A splitting headache and bruised kneecaps were inconvenient, but they couldn’t keep me off my feet. I glanced left to see Haruki was still sleeping. I wasn’t sure what I’d have said or done if he were awake, anyway. My stomach groaned with a familiar pang of hunger, one more intense than I’d felt in a while, and I suddenly realized I hadn’t eaten in over twenty-four hours. 

I got out of bed and stumbled upstairs to the dormitory long enough to use the restroom, shower, and change out of the scrubs I had apparently been changed into for my stay in the infirmary. Then I walked toward the restaurant. Parts of the floor around where Hachise had triggered that explosion were discolored and misshapen, but any real damage to the floor or wall had been repaired literally overnight. 

Noise, Yusuke, Miaya, Reiko, and Takamaru ate at a pair of tables that had been pushed together. “Hey-hey, Sleeping Beauty rises, no prince required,” Noise remarked. 

Miaya stood up without a word and marched over to me. She checked my face for signs of a fever or other warnings before, satisfied, she returned to her seat. “Shit, dude, I’ve never regretted oversleeping more,” Takamaru apologized. “The rooms are soundproof, but that explosion still rocked the boat—literally.” 

“I still cannot believe Hachise was hiding such a powerful weapon,” Yusuke murmured. 

“She gave me her only device,” Reiko sighed. “At least she says it’s her only one…” 

“Well, duh,” Hachise interjected as she and Ren entered from the kitchen with plates of food and coffee, “nobody’d trust me with the thing now that everyone knows I had it. I was hoping to save it for the climactic battle with Monokuma. I can hardly believe that clown forced me to use my trump card. Anyway, as president, your hands are the most trustworthy!”

“I told you I’m not—forget it,” Reiko heaved. 

“Why did you—” After reconsidering for a moment, I rephrased my question: “What the hell happened between you and Haruki?” 

“I was interrogating him,” Hachise explained, “with Reiko’s permission, of course. He wouldn’t talk, so I applied a little pressure, but then he tried to stab me, and he escaped Reiko’s room, so I chased after him to disable him. Then you woke up, and I think you saw the rest.” 

_Was that crossbow for “applying a little pressure”?_

“You went a little hard for just ‘disabling’ him,” Noise criticized. “Ugh, whatever, function’s reached its limit. Frankly I’m just pissed I can’t beat the shit out of him now.” 

“It’s not like he could stop you,” Hachise chuckled. 

“Shut up,” Noise bit. “I ain’t about to smack up an infirm.” 

Ren placed a massive saucer with oranges, eggs, and other foods at the table in front of me. “Here,” he offered. More grateful than I’d been for breakfast since boarding this vessel, I wolfed down the meal and, to my infinite gratitude, was immediately offered seconds. 

“Oh wow! That looks delicious! Did you make this for li’l ol’ me?” Monokuma asked Ren after appearing from underneath my table. 

Ren kicked Monokuma away from me, and the bear was sent somersaulting comically backward. “Get lost,” he said. 

“Ow-ow-wow!” Monokuma proclaimed as he gripped his nose, where he had been struck. “Hey! I’m giving you a pass on that just cuz I’m a nice guy, but remember violence against the headmaster is strictly prohibited!” 

“Ooh, Monokuma’s here,” Hachise noticed. “Is it time for the next motive?” 

“You guessed it!” Monokuma confirmed. “You kids are just gonna love this one! I know it!” 

“Spit it out already,” Reiko sighed while she stirred her coffee disinterestedly. 

“Yeah, bastard, we ain’t got all day,” Noise chastised. 

“Jeez, you could at least act a little excited,” Monokuma replied. “Fine, have it your way. I was watching your little spat with Haruki yesterday, and let me just say it warmed my ursine heart to no end to see you fighting so despairingly! Unfortunately, Haruki and Hachise both held back because neither of them wanted to be the blackened. What a shame! Well, the last thing I want is for the class trial system to _discourage_ killings, so I’ve decided the next one is a freebie!” 

“A freebie?” Takamaru wondered. 

“That’s right!” Monokuma said. “Your new motive is a **free trial**! The next time there’s a murder, even if it was obviously you, so long as you admit you did it, you won’t be punished! Of course, you won’t get to graduate either since admitting you killed someone counts as being discovered. Still, the next time you feel the urge to kill your classmates, go right on ahead! Murderlize each other to your hearts’ content!” Monokuma vanished underneath another table as quickly as he’d appeared. 

“Man! After all the trouble I went to not to kill Haruki!” Hachise groaned. 

“You shouldn’t kill him regardless!” Usami asserted on Miaya’s behalf. Takamaru, Reiko, and Noise continued to eat in silence while Miaya and Hachise argued. Ren and Yusuke seemed uncertain of how to respond to Monokuma’s motive. I was as well, honestly. 

I considered how best to handle the situation. Kari would have immediately come up with some way to mitigate the motive, but now, we all just sat around contemplating to ourselves. I finished my seconds as I tried to think of a suggestion to give the others. When Ren placed thirds in front of me, however, he lightly smacked my hand when I reached for them. “They’re for Haruki,” he explained shortly when I gave him a confused look. 

Admiring his courtesy toward yesterday’s adversary, I felt compelled to fulfill the Phantom Thief’s unspoken request and bring the Ultimate Class Clown his breakfast. _He probably hasn’t eaten in as long as I have. Will this really be enough?_

Back at the infirmary, I found Haruki had returned to consciousness. “Whadda you wanth?” the infirm snapped with an unusual drawl when I entered. Any semblance of humor was gone from his voice. 

“Ren made this for you,” I said as I gestured with his breakfast. “I think he wants to apologize.” 

“I’ll shell him where he can shick hish—” Haruki was interrupted by a coughing fit. When he regained his composure, he continued, “I don’th wanth ith.” 

“Haruki,” I started, “I know you’re hurt, but you’re still alive, and if you want to stay that way—”

“Who shaid I wan’ thoo?” Haruki interrupted. When I hesitated, he continued, “I grew up in a shircush, noth the fun kind. Shish and I were thaken off the threets by shraffickers. Shome shickos forshed us ‘n’ a bunch of other kidsh to perform deathly shtunsh—noth thoo mention other unshpeakable thingsh. I shurvived becaush I had thalenth. Mosth weren’ sho lucky. Every day more kidsh died, and every day I knew I wush nexth, but I never wush. Death—death didn’ shcare me. Even afther I came to Hope’sh Peak, death never shcared me. But the only reashon Kizakura-shenshei pulled me out of tha’ hellhole—the only reashon I shurvived in the firsh place—was becaush I had thalenth. What shcared me more than anything was looshing my thalenth, and now, well, jush look at me.” 

“When we get off this boat, we can get you to an actual doctor,” I encouraged, “and then—” 

“I canno’ feel my _armsh_ , Gale!” Haruki shouted. “I shaw the x-raysh! I shaw the bonesh in my legsh! Jush lishen thoo me! I’ve been in thish indushry my whole life! I know what ‘damaged beyond repair’ looksh like! Don’ you _dare_ chasthise me with _hope_!” 

“Haruki,” I replied after a long silence, “I don’t care. You should have been the blackened, but you’re alive. As far as I’m concerned, you should be thankful for that. Now eat your breakfast.” 

“You know, the nexth pershon who comesh through tha’ door will be here thoo kill me,” Haruki said plainly. “Yeah, Monokuma thold me abou’ the new mothive. I know I’m an easy thargeth.” 

“Just _eat_ ,” I scolded the sad clown as I sat on his bed beside him. 

“Tha’sh how you’re gonna be then?” Haruki retorted after a long moment. 

“That’s how I’m gonna be,” I affirmed. 

“I can’th,” Haruki bit. “The nervesh in my fashe are damaged. I can’th chew or even shwallow properly.” 

“Let me help then,” I insisted. I sliced a piece of deviled egg off and held it to his mouth on a fork. Reluctantly, he let me put the egg in his mouth. I set his plate down long enough to put my hands on his jaw and help him chew. Then, I massaged his throat to help him swallow. Bit by boring bit, I took apart his breakfast and fed it to him this way without another word. I didn’t bother checking a clock to see how long it took. 

Finally, I stood up. “ _Merci beaucoup_ , _mon ami,_ ” Haruki told me as I left the infirmary, but I didn’t reply. I passed Reiko and Takamaru on my way back upstairs. Seeing them reminded me I wanted to ask the Phantom Thieves about Reiko’s change of heart. I wandered around for a while until I found Ren and Yusuke in the kitchen. The former had just finished brewing a cup of coffee. 

“Hey, Ranger,” Morgana said as he poked his head out of Ren’s bag, “would you mind coming with us to bring this to Haruki?” 

“The breakfast felt a little insincere,” Ren admitted. “Coffee is more personal.” 

“Do you guys feel bad about what happened to him?” I wondered. “It sounds like Haruki started the fight, and Hachise’s the one who blew him up.” 

“Regardless,” Yusuke replied, “perhaps it was his heart we should have been trying to change. If this alternative had presented us with more success, we might have prevented the whole fiasco,” Yusuke hesitated before finishing, “as well as the demise of…” 

“We’ll never forgive Haruki for what he did to Lady Ann,” Morgana scowled, “but he’s also a victim here. His cognition has been completely distorted by Monokuma and the killing game. It might be too late to set things right, but it’s not too late to try.” 

Solemnly, I accompanied the group back to the infirmary. When we stepped through the doors, however, we saw something horrifying. Haruki Haruharu, the Ultimate Circus Performer, lay lifelessly on the hospital bed. His head had fallen limply to the side, and his lifeless eyes stared onward in horror. The cast on his right arm had been undone, exposing the burns on his skin, a number of puncture wounds from Hachise's sewing needles, and a slight break in his arm. An open wound was present on his chest, and holding one of the victim’s own throwing knives, stained with blood and standing right next to the victim, was Reiko Izanami. 

 


	9. Chapter 4: Divine Tragedy, Infernal Comedy - Deadly Life

*Ding dong, dong ding*

“A body has been discovered!” Monokuma announced from a nearby monitor. “Everyone, please gather in the infirmary! After a certain amount of time, which you may use however you like, the  **class trial** will begin!” 

I could barely even process what I was seeing before Reiko barreled past Yusuke, Ren, and me. “Reiko!” Yusuke called out to her, but her long legs carried her away before we could even think to chase her. 

In less than a minute, Takamaru, Noise, Miaya, and Hachise all arrived at the infirmary. Ren and Yusuke started trying to explain to them what we had seen, but I still couldn’t believe it. “You saw her stab him?” Takamaru asked in disbelief. 

“No,” Yusuke admitted, “we only saw her holding the murder weapon over the wound.” 

“That’s still pretty damning,” Noise said. “She’s got the weapon, the motive, the opportunity, and 3 eyewitnesses.” 

“She could have been pulling the knife out of him!” Takamaru protested. 

“But…” Usami started, “if she found him like this, why would she take the knife out instead of coming to get us?” 

“You’re all so used to overcomplicating these cases,” Hachise sighed. “Sometimes murder is just murder.” I moved closer to Haruki’s body and started looking for anything out of the ordinary. “What are you doing?” Hachise asked. 

“Investigating,” I answered, “we can argue all we want in the class trial, but we only have a little time to gather evidence. If it’s cut and dry, we should prove it to ourselves.” 

“He’s got an  (x, y) -coordinate,” Noise sighed. 

“I’m going to try to find Reiko,” Takamaru declared. “We need to hear her side of this.” 

“Agreed,” Yusuke said, “shall we?” He gestured toward Ren, who nodded and started to follow him and Takamaru out of the infirmary. 

The three were blocked, however, by the appearance of Monokuma. “Hold on!” he shouted after falling from the ceiling. “First things first! I didn’t expect a murder to happen so quickly! That motive must have been a real doozy! Alright then, which one of you did it? All you have to do is fess up, and you’ll get away scot-free! No trial!” 

Ren and Yusuke exchanged an awkward glance. Noise tapped his foot impatiently. Takamaru remained silent. Miaya held her breath. Hachise looked around at each of us in turn. None of us said anything. “What?” Monokuma wondered. “Whoever did it doesn’t wanna admit to it? You must all really like the class trials after all! In that case, you’ll need the most important part of the investigation, the Monokuma—”

“Just give us the damn autopsy and go, you friggin’ iota,” Noise cursed. 

“Sheesh, I get chump change for screen time this whole chapter, and now  _ this  _ is how I’m treated?” Monokuma sulked. The monochromatic bear vanished back into the ceiling, and my e-Handbook buzzed. When I checked it, the new Monokuma file read as follows: 

“The victim is Haruki Haruharu.”

“The time of death was 9:28am.” 

“The body was found in a hospital bed in the infirmary.”

“Cause of death was cardiovascular failure.”

“The victim suffered a stab wound to the heart, but no other external injuries were inflicted on the date of death.” 

“Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to find Reiko,” Takamaru heaved before exiting the infirmary with the Phantom Thieves in tow. 

“‘Cardiovascular failure,’” I read aloud, “not ‘a stab to the chest.’” 

“Pretty sure gettin’ shanked in the fuckin’ heart counts as ‘cardiovascular failure,’” Noise sighed, “but I guess I can’t blame you for bein’ suspicious after Shiro ‘drowned.’” 

“Well, Galey, since you’re so suspicious, let’s look for clues!” Hachise encouraged. “I’ll be your partner in this investigation!” 

“We’ll help too!” Usami declared on Miaya’s behalf. The avatar was suddenly accessorized with a virtual deerstalker and tobacco pipe. 

“We could try to learn more about the knife Reiko had,” I suggested. “It looked like one of Haruki’s throwing knives, but if we can figure out where it came from, that could be a big help.” 

“Then I’ll check Haruki’s lab!” Miaya asserted vicariously through Usami before leaving the infirmary. 

“I wanna take another look at Haruki’s injuries,” Noise said. “We put his x-rays and some medical analyses Hachise and Miaya did in the Ultimate Forensic Criminalist's lab. I’ve heard shit about bone marrow stoppin’ people’s hearts if it gets in their bloodstreams, and if the Monokuma File’s right, it’s either that or the knife. Shout if you need anything.” 

Noise left Hachise and me in the infirmary. “I guess it’s just you and me,” Hachise giggled cheerily. “Let’s see if we can find anything in here!” 

I investigated the body for a minute while Hachise examined the bed itself. “Find anything?” I asked after giving up. 

“It’s what I’m not seeing that’s weird,” Hachise shared. “There’s barely a sign of a struggle. I know he couldn’t move much, but you’d think he’d at least wriggle a bit if he was being stabbed. Still, the bedsheets weren’t disturbed hardly at all.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if he fell back asleep after I brought him his breakfast,” I theorized. “He may have been killed in his sleep.” 

“What about you?” Hachise asked. 

“The stab wounded landed squarely between his ribs, but aside from that, the only thing out of place is this cast,” I noticed. “His right arm is clearly broken, but the cast was removed, and now it’s over here,” I commented while gesturing to the cast, which lay on the ground beside the bed. “He was still wearing it when I brought him breakfast.” 

“Did the killer take it off then,” Hachise wondered, “or did Haruki?” 

“I’m not sure why either would,” I admitted, “but that’s exactly why it’s suspicious.” 

“You’ve got quite an eye for these things!” Hachise admired. 

“I learned from the best,” I replied with a faint grin. Everything else in the infirmary seemed to be exactly as I left it, but I swept the place from top to bottom anyway. The medicine cabinet was in order—save for some missing medication that, according to Hachise, had been used to treat Haruki’s and my injuries yesterday. When I was searching the second bed, however, I found something out of place. A throwing knife, exactly like one of Haruki’s, had been hidden beneath the mattress. “Hachise, you’re gonna want to see this.” 

“It’s one of Haruki’s, alright,” Hachise agreed as I held the knife and examined it. This knife, unlike the one Reiko had been holding, was pristine. In fact, it looked like it had never been used; there were no marks or smudges on the blade at all. 

While I was examining the blade’s shine, I experimentally touched my middle finger to its edge. “Ow,” I bit as a thin stream of blood appeared. 

“Galey! Are you alright?” Hachise asked. 

“I’m fine,” I assured her. “I wanted to test its edge. It’s sharp, alright, unnaturally sharp.” As another experiment, I pulled the blade through a piece of the bedsheet, and the cloth came apart perfectly like hot butter. 

“I could’ve told you that, silly,” Hachise giggled as she gestured toward her bandaged cheek, where one of Haruki’s knives had grazed her yesterday morning.

“Right, sorry,” I apologized with a slight chuckle, “let’s see if the others found anything.” 

“Let me try something first,” Hachise requested. Agreeing, I gave her the pristine throwing knife, and she walked over to Haruki. She compared the size and shape of the knife to the stab wound for a moment before concluding, “Yep, this is definitely the murder weapon, or rather it’s identical to the murder weapon. All of Haruki’s knives are the same, so he was definitely stabbed by one of them.”

With that, Hachise and I left the infirmary to investigate elsewhere. Starting with the closest area, Hachise and I met Noise in the Ultimate Forensic Criminalist's lab. “Turn anything up?” he asked us. 

“We found another knife like the one Reiko had in the other hospital bed,” I shared. “The missing cast seemed suspicious, but we couldn’t find any clues around that.” 

“How goes the medical maths and junk?” Hachise asked Noise. 

“Well, I’m no Ultimate Forensic Criminalist,” Noise admitted, “but I compared Haruki’s x-rays and what we were able to learn about his injuries with some examples and medical texts in this lab.” 

“What’d you find?” I asked. 

“From what I can tell,” Noise shared, “there’s no way he died from internal bleeding or bone marrow getting in his veins. At least, if that was going to happen, it should have happened much sooner, like, yesterday.” 

“Phew!” Hachise pretended to wipe sweat from her brow. “If that was the cause of death, I’m pretty that’d make me the blackened!” 

_ She seems pretty nonchalant about that.  _

“Look, man,” Noise leveled with me, “I know we gotta cover our bases, but, like, we saw Reiko with the fuckin’ knife. I don’t know how much more complicated this can be. If it was someone else, the killer would’ve admitted it, right? We just gotta wait for her to admit she did it to Monokuma.” 

“Nah, Galey’s right!” Hachise defended me. “We need to be as thorough as possible! What if she doesn’t admit it, or what if the killer thinks they can graduate cuz everyone will vote for Reiko? Our lives are at stake!” 

“Guess you’re right,” Noise sighed, “well, I got 0 clue how most of the shit in this lab works, but I can use the x-ray machine. I’ll take another x-ray of Haruki just to be safe. You guys keep doin’…” Noise trailed off when he seemed at a loss for a second, “whatever you’re doin’.” 

 Hachise and I left the Ultimate Forensic Criminalist 's lab. Since it was close by, we decided to join Miaya in the Ultimate Circus Performer's lab next. “Guys! Guys!” Usami enthused as Miaya frantically typed into her handbook. “I found it!” 

“Way to go, Mia!” Hachise replied. “What exactly is ‘it’?” 

Miaya presented us with a large briefcase—larger than any I’d seen—and she opened it. The container, however, was completely empty. Inside, there were rows of identically-sized slots in the distinctive shape of Haruki’s throwing knives. Miaya typed something into her handbook, and then Usami said, “This has gotta be it! It must have come with the lab, and Haruki must have hidden it from Kari! I found it between a bunch of gymnastics mats!” 

“Makes sense to me,” I agreed. Hachise was still examining the briefcase more closely. 

“Some are still missing,” she observed. 

“What do you mean?” Usami asked. 

“Well, counting the knives he used against me, Reiko’s knife, and the knife we found in the infirmary, this briefcase still has room for more, but they’re not here,” Hachise observed. “I’m going to look around for the rest,” she declared. “Could you help me out, Galey?” 

“Actually,” I said, “I’m going to look for Reiko and the others. I still want to talk to them.” 

“I’ll help you, Hachise!” Miaya offered vicariously. 

“I appreciate it,” Hachise thanked her. “I hope for her sake that Reiko knows something we don’t,” the Ultimate Survivor giggled. With that, Hachise and Miaya left Haruki’s lab. 

Without the e-Handbook’s map to guide me, I took a guess at where Reiko and the others might be. Luckily, my instincts were right on the money. Takamaru, Ren, and Yusuke were standing in front of the door to Reiko’s room in the dormitory hallway. “Reiko! Open up! We just wanna talk!” Takamaru pleaded while he banged on her door. 

“She cannot hear you,” Yusuke reminded him. 

“Dammit!” Takamaru cursed as he punched the door. Defeated, he leaned against the threshold and slid to the floor. 

“You sure she’s in there?” I asked as I approached. 

“Yeah, we saw her run in,” Takamaru affirmed, “but she won’t open up, and she can’t even hear my voice to know it’s me and not Hachise or Noise out for fuckin’ blood.” 

“Have you uncovered anything?” Yusuke inquired. 

“Noise doesn’t think Haruki died from the injuries he got from Hachise,” I relayed, “and Miaya found an empty case that we think used to have his knives. I found another knife under the other bed in the infirmary, but we’re not sure if that’s related. We don’t have anything conclusive.” 

“If it really was her, she should admit she did it,” Takamaru groaned. “It’s like she  _ wants  _ to get executed.”

“I am sorry,” Yusuke apologized. “Takamaru, I fear we were once again too late. If we had been able to change Reiko’s heart sooner…” 

“No, it’s not too late,” Takamaru insisted, “not yet.” 

“Takamaru,” I admitted, “Haruki’s dead, and as much as I’d like to overcomplicate things—”

“Take me back,” Takamaru stated bluntly. 

“Huh?” Ren wondered. 

“That place with the floating rocks and the monsters, it wasn’t a dream,” Takamaru realized, “was it?” 

“Then you do remember?” Yusuke asked. 

“Not at first, but…” Takamaru trailed off for a moment. “It comes back to me in waves. It seemed too weird to be real, but—” Takamaru hesitated before explaining. “I was in my room. I wanted to go back to sleep after Reiko got me out of bed for breakfast. I was checking out the different apps on my e-Handbook when I saw a new one. It was red with this creepy eye on it. I heard a ring at the doorbell. I thought it was Reiko, so I called out to her without thinking; I keep forgetting the rooms are soundproof. Anyway, the app said something about a candidate, and then I was in that dark place with the floating rocks. 

“You all had weird outfits. There was a talking cat. Some kinds of monsters or demons were closing in. I saw Reiko. She jumped off a ledge. I went after her. I thought I was dreaming, so I was just acting on instinct. Then there was a plane, and I flew us to safety, but Reiko transformed into some half-naked hippie, and I got electrocuted. Everything’s hazy after that. When I came to, I was in this guy’s lab. Tell me that doesn’t sound like some crazy lucid dream.” 

“Alright,” I conceded, “yeah, it was real. That place is called the Metaverse, and it’s a result of some kind of cognitive—”

“Ah, save it!” Takamaru interrupted me. “I don’t wanna know what it is or how it works. We don’t have time for that, but that’s where you guys go when you’re off the map changing people’s hearts, right? Then let’s go back. Take me with you.”

“Do you still have that app on your handbook?” I asked. 

“No,” Takamaru said as he showed me his e-Handbook, “it was gone after I woke up.” He scrolled through each of the apps, but there was no sign of the Metaverse Navigator. 

“It would seem as though we are still dependent on yours then,” Yusuke noted as he looked to me. 

“What do you think, Morgana?” I asked as I turned to Ren. “Can we make it back to Reiko’s Shadow before the trial?” 

“We’ll be pushing it, but it’s not impossible,” Morgana replied as he poked his head out of Ren’s bag. “We’d have to go now.” 

“Your cat's talking!” Takamaru shouted as he pointed to Morgana with a shocked expression. 

“Then let’s go,” Ren decided. “You’re in,” he said to Takamaru. 

 

I am  **thou** , thou art I…

Thou hast acquired a  **new** vow.

 

It shall  **become** the wings of rebellion

that  **breaketh** thy chains of captivity.

 

With the rebirth of the Star Persona,

I have obtained the winds of  **blessing** that

shall lead to freedom and  **new** power…

 

Following Ren’s lead, I opened the Metaverse Navigator on my e-Handbook and tapped the icon at the center. “Wait! No!” Morgana protested, but I had already pressed the button. 

“Why not?” I suddenly remembered what Morgana had told us about entering the remnants of Mementos from areas besides the hideout. “Oh no…” 

As the world distorted and appeared to burn away around us, the ground abruptly vanished beneath our feet. Our outfits changed into their Metaversal counterparts, and Morgana was now the full-sized Mona. “Ranger, you idiot!” Mona yowled. 

Fox, Takamaru, and I screamed as we began to fall. “Takamaru! Use your Persona!” I implored. 

“My what?” he shouted over the sound of the air rushing past us. 

“The airplane!” I clarified! 

“Oh! Why didn’t you say so?” he shouted back. Takamaru pulled a pair of aviation goggles down over his face as he gave me a thumbs up. “Icarus!” he called, and his aeronautical Persona materialized beneath him. Takamaru and Mona landed cleanly on the back of Icarus, who reached out with its mechanical arms to catch Fox and me. Joker caught Fox’s hand and hoisted himself onto the Persona’s back with Mona and Takamaru. 

“Phew, nice save,” Mona complimented. 

“Oh dude! This is awesome!” Takamaru exclaimed as he marveled at the aerodynamic design of his other self. 

“We must make haste!” Fox reminded us. “Mona, can you sense the distortion caused by Reiko’s Shadow?” 

“Yeah!” Mona affirmed as he pointed, “Takamaru, Reiko’s Shadow is that way! We need to get there to change her heart!” 

“You got it!” Takamaru replied as he beckoned his Persona forward at high speed. 

We soared past Shadow after Shadow prowling the floating islands around us. Mona briefly explained that we would have to defeat Reiko’s Shadow and steal her Treasure to change her heart, but we couldn’t destroy the Shadow without risking serious damage to Reiko in the real world. 

Despite having never controlled a Persona before, Takamaru guided Icarus effortlessly. The tricky maneuvers required to evade Shadows and floating rocks without knocking the passengers off the top would have taken someone like me a lifetime to master, but he performed them almost subconsciously while simultaneously absorbing Mona’s exposition.  _ Ultimate Pilot is right.  _

“There she is!” Mona declared as he pointed out the small, distorted island we had approached the other day. Icarus dropped Fox and me off on the island’s edge before dissipating. Takamaru, Joker, and Mona landed just in front of Fox and me. 

Reiko’s Shadow—accompanied by one of the larger, featureless Shadows prowling the area—turned to face us. The black miasma around her Shadow was thicker than before, and her yellow eyes glowed brighter against her now-umbral skin. “Go away,” she ordered. “Just let me be with them!” 

“Reiko!” Takamaru called out to his girlfriend. “We’re here to help! Tell us what happened!” 

“I said go away!” Reiko’s Shadow repeated. The Shadow melted down and reemerged from the black ichor as the same Bacchic humanoid it had become during our first encounter. The Shadow beside the hedonistic braggart transformed as well; it became three of the mushroom-headed swordsmen we had seen in Kari’s Palace. 

“Dammit,” Takamaru cursed, “there’s no reasoning with her when she gets like this. The only person who could talk her out of it is—”

“It’s alright,” a feminine voice said as a hand fell on Takamaru’s shoulder. I had been so fixated on Reiko’s Shadow, that I didn’t notice this newcomer’s approach. Standing next to Takamaru was none other than Reiko—the normal Reiko. 

“Reiko!” Yusuke marveled as her appearance seemed to startle him as well. “How did you—”

“That thing showed up in my reflection after you quit ringing my doorbell,” Reiko explained. “I was arguing with it for a while when this weird app appeared on my handbook. I used the app, and suddenly I was here. I don’t know if this is hypnotism or VR or some alternate dimension, but I get this feeling. That thing over there,” Reiko concluded as she gestured toward her Shadow, “that’s me.” 

“Mona, this is getting freaky,” I whispered as I leaned down to the cartoonish cat. “Why are more students getting the app all of a sudden, and isn’t it dangerous for Reiko to meet her own Shadow?” 

“I’ve seen it happen once before,” Mona shared, “and it destabilized the Palace, but now we’re not in a Palace, so I’m not sure.”

“Slay her!” the tie-dye Shadow ordered as its fungal minions rushed forward with two-handed swords at the ready. 

“Zaou-Gongen!” Joker cried as he summoned a Persona to his side. Zaou-Gongen was a masculine Persona with blue skin and fiery, cyan hair. White markings decorated his exposed torso and thighs, and red braces were wrapped around his thighs, biceps, and neck while white scarves cascaded off his wrists and ankles. The scarves were held in place by a series of chains, which connected to a monstrous, metal face covering the Persona’s pelvis. The chains also connected to a metal, high-collar neck brace. Zaou-Gongen wore a fierce expression beneath a golden crown decorated with a blade protruding from the forehead. He held a matching weapon in his right hand with golden, double-sided blades protruding from either side of the ritualistic dirk. 

Joker’s Persona conjured a blast of flames that completely incinerated one of the mushroom-headed swordsmen. “One down!” Mona declared. 

“Go ahead!” Joker continued as he high-fived me as a signal to follow up. 

“Odysseus!” I yelled as my gunslinging Persona appeared beside me. “Fall!” I shouted as Odysseus fired a powerful bullet precisely into the head of the second oncoming Shadow, which fell to the ground. “It’s all you!” I continued as I high-fived Takamaru. 

“Carpet bomb!” Takamaru shouted as Icarus reappeared at his side. The aerodynamic Persona conjured a wave of flames that rained onto the third oncoming Shadow, which also dissipated into black dust upon being incinerated. 

Seemingly unbothered by the chaos ensuing around her, Reiko continued to calmly approach her Shadow. “Stop!” I yelled as I remembered what happened to Takamaru when he came too close the other day. 

“Begone!” Reiko’s Shadow declared as it called bolts of lightning down onto Joker, Takamaru, Fox, and me. I screamed as electricity surged through my body. The power shot my nerves, and I found myself unable to move. 

“Joker!” I called as I sought help from our leader. 

“Joker’s electrified!” Mona reported. “Fox got shocked. He can’t move!” 

“Come hither, Reiko,” the Bacchic Shadow declared as it extended its hand. “We shall voyage across this sea of troubles to that sleep of death.” 

Reiko slowly approached and extended her hand to reach the Shadow’s. “Dionysus, right?” Reiko asked. “That’s the name you said in the mirror.” 

“Indeed,” the Shadow answered, “we are thespians, thou and I, but every act must close.” 

“Yeah,” Reiko agreed in a solemn voice. The Ultimate Thespian moved into Dionysus’s hold and allowed the Shadow to embrace her. 

“Yea, now let us—” Dionysus stopped short to yowl in pain. I squinted to get a closer look, and I could see that Reiko had thrust the bloody knife she carried away from the crime scene into her Shadow’s side. 

“The thing about closing acts,” Reiko started, “is that the best ones always have a  _ twist _ .” Reiko punctuated her claim with a twist of her knife, and her Shadow wailed again. 

“Hahaha,” Dionysus cackled, “ha-ha-ha! Verily! I suppose thou hast time yet ‘fore thou shuffle off this mortal coil! Very well, by the blood of thy comrade, our contract be sealed! I am thou, thou art I! Now, cry my true name and tear thy mask from thy flesh!”

“When you put it that way, don’t you make it a little too obvious?” Reiko snickered. “Shakespeare!” 

In a flash of blinding light, Dionysus transformed. In its place, there now stood a humanoid avatar, Reiko’s other self. The being wore an extravagant, purple ball gown with pink and blue accents. The inside of his dress’s ruffled skirt swirled with psychedelic light, and he wore corked, high-heeled shoes. Lacy, white gloves extended to the halfway points of his biceps. Ruffles puffed out from the collar of the being’s shirt to accentuate his face, which was strangely triangular and featured a silver beard that curled over itself, a pointed mustache that extended past his face to the length of his shoulders, and not a shred of hair atop his head. Finally, the avatar carried a golden quill in his right hand. 

Reiko, meanwhile, was no longer wearing her normal clothing. Instead, she wore an Elizabethan outfit with puffy, purple-and-pink bloomers over blue pantyhose. She had corked shoes matching Shakespeare’s, and she wore a pair of much sturdier-looking white gloves. The puffy sleeves on her purple-and-pink blouse featured rows of bronze buttons, and her outfit was topped by a white cavalier hat with a turquoise hatband. 

“Odd…” Fox murmured, “does her outfit not remind you of Noir’s?” 

“Incoming!” Mona warned as another featureless Shadow fell from a floating island above us. This one melted and transformed into a thundering berserker like the kind we had seen in Kari’s Palace. 

“Still numb…” Fox muttered as he tried and failed to rise to his feet. 

“Thou art I!” Reiko proclaimed as Shakespeare moved in front of her. The hammer-wielding Shadow called down a bolt of lightning onto her, but Reiko’s Persona reflected the bolt, which in turn was absorbed by the Shadow. Then, Shakespeare drew his quill through the air, and healing energy washed over Joker. 

“Thanks!” Joker said as he regained his footing. “Chi You!” he cried, and his bovine, six-armed Persona phased into view. Technicolor light swirled around the thunderous Shadow, which crumbled into dust after falling to its knees in the wake of the attack. Meanwhile, the mushroom-headed Shadow I had downed earlier rose to its feet, and it charged forward at Fox. “Leave it to you!” Joker called as Mona stepped between Fox and the Shadow. 

“Time for my Persona!” Mona announced as Mercurius materialized in front of him. The ethereal thief conjured a blast of slashing wind that tore through the wounded Shadow, which dissipated into the bluster. 

With the enemies in the immediate area destroyed, Mercurius used some kind of healing magic to cure us of our paralysis. Takamaru rushed to Reiko’s side, and the two held each other in a long embrace. “Reiko! You’re back!” Takamaru enthused. “Come on! We have to hurry before the trial starts!” The Ultimate Pilot pulled his confused girlfriend by her hand back to the rest of us. 

Not wasting any time, I used the Metaverse Navigator to leave Mementos. “Returning to real world,” the app sounded. “Thank you for your hard work.” The Phantom Thieves, Takamaru, Reiko, and I reappeared in a dorm room. From the chair that once held down Haruki, I recognized it as Reiko’s room. 

*Ding dong, dong ding*

“Attention, everyone,” Monokuma announced through the ship’s monitors, “your captain is officially bored. Let’s get on with the class trial, shall we? Please proceed through the red door on the deck of the  _ S.S. Titanokuma-A _ .” 

“Just in time,” Takamaru sighed. 

“What the hell?” Reiko asked. 

“We can explain later,” I assured her, “but keep it to yourself for now.” 

“Listen, Reiko!” Takamaru said. “You have to admit you killed Haruki! With the motive, you won’t be executed!” 

“I’m sorry, Takamaru,” Reiko apologized. “I can’t do that.” 

Without any further explanation, Reiko left the room. Takamaru, the Phantom Thieves, and I followed her silently to the deck of the ship, where we met Noise, Hachise, and Miaya by the crimson door. “Reiko, you’re here,” Noise greeted the Ultimate Thespian. “Look. I ain’t exactly happy you did it, but just tell Monokuma you killed the bastard. There’s 0 reason why you should have to die too.” 

“Sorry,” Reiko apologized again before passing Noise and continuing to the crimson door. 

“The fuck?” Noise wondered aloud before turning to me. I raised my hands and shook my head to express that I didn’t know any more than he did. 

The crimson doors swung open, and we all stepped inside. I silently considered this peculiar case as the elevator began to descend. All the evidence pointed to Reiko, but if she did kill Haruki, why wouldn’t she admit to it? There had to be more to this, or did there? Most of my classmates looked as lost as I did, and the others were silently contemplative. The quiet was only broken by the rhythmic, impatient tapping of Noise's foot. 

When the elevator reached the bottom, its doors opened to the trial grounds I’d become begrudgingly familiar with. Each of us made our way to our respective podiums. Two new signs marked the circular trial grounds like eerie headstones: one for Kari and one for Haruki, each crossed out with a red X. 

“Let’s begin with a basic explanation of the class trial,” Monokuma repeated once again. “Your votes will determine the results. If you can figure out ‘whodunnit,’ only the blackened will receive punishment, but if you pick the wrong one… then I’ll punish everyone  _ besides  _ the blackened, and the one that deceived everyone else will graduate!”

As we prepared to begin the trial, everyone’s eyes turned to Reiko. It was like our gazes were water swirling down a drain with her at the center. Either she murdered Haruki right in front of us, or the truth was something stranger than fiction. 

Noise: So, you seriously won’t admit you did it? 

Reiko: … 

Noise: Fine, have it your way. My ass ain’t the 1 on the line. 

Takamaru: I know everyone suspects her, but Reiko still deserves a fair trial. 

Yusuke: If she will not confess, perhaps we should just proceed as usual. 

Usami: I hate that this has happened enough times for us to have an “as usual.” 

Noise: Fuck it, ain’t like we got any better shit to do. Where do we start this time? Case summary? Murder weapon? Alibis? 

Hachise: According to the Monokuma File, the time of death was 9:28. It was 9:29 when we heard the announcement. 

Usami: Yeah, I was looking at my handbook when the announcement played, so I could also clearly see the time. 

Yusuke: Then the murder occurred  **exactly one minute** before the announcement. 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Noise: Gale’s right. It might be less. For example, he could’ve died at 9:28:50, and then maybe we heard the announcement at 9:29:10. That’d be 20 seconds. 

Usami: It did seem like  **it had just turned 9:29** . 

Hachise: Then what was everyone doing just before the announcement played? 

Ren: I was with Yusuke. 

Yusuke: Correct, he, Gale, and I met in the kitchen. Then  **we walked to the infirmary** together to bring Haruki a cup of coffee. Surely it took us at least a few minutes to finish the coffee and walk downstairs to the crime scene. 

Usami: Noise and I were with Hachise from the time Monokuma gave us the motive until we heard the announcement. 

Noise: We didn’t want the Ultimate Psycho Bitch to try pulling anything with that motive in mind. 

Hachise: I resent that title! 

Noise: Yet you don’t deny you’d have pulled something. 

Yusuke: Then it would seem  **everyone except Reiko has an alibi** . 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Usami: Huh, but wasn’t everyone together? 

Gale: No, that still leaves Takamaru. I saw him and Reiko heading downstairs before I met up with Ren and Yusuke, but he’s unaccounted for at the time of the murder. 

Takamaru: I’m glad  _ someone  _ remembered me. 

Noise: Hey, Takamaru, did you kill Haruki? 

Takamaru: What! No! Of course not! 

Noise: There you have it.  **He’s innocent.**

Usami: Um, Noise, I’m not sure that makes him innocent. 

Noise: Why wouldn’t he tell us? Remember the fuckin’ motive?  **0 consequences** . 

Hachise: Ooh, what if Reiko’s covering for him, and she’s taking the fall so he can graduate? 

Takamaru: Okay, you weren’t here for that trial, but we’ve already been over this. 

Noise: Fine, the  **alibis leave us with 2 suspects** . Then let’s talk about the murder weapon. 

Yusuke: We saw Reiko with the knife when we entered the scene. Then she fled with it. 

Reiko: … 

Takamaru: H-how do you know that was the murder weapon?  **It could’ve been any knife** ! 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Takamaru: You said you didn’t actually see her pull the knife out of him! She was just holding it nearby! 

Gale: That’s not the point. She was holding one of Haruki’s throwing knives. They’re all identical. 

Hachise: We found another throwing knife in the infirmary after the murder. The size and shape matched Haruki’s injury exactly! Of course, the knife we found had never been used. 

Noise: The killer didn’t have time to move the weapon anywhere else, so if it wasn’t that 1, it had to be the 1 Reiko had. 

Hachise: There definitely weren’t any more throwing knives in the infirmary, and Kari got rid of all of the infirmary’s scalpels forever ago. 

Takamaru: How do we know the knife is what killed him? The Monokuma File just says “cardiovascular failure”! 

Noise: Yo, Monoshitstain, does getting stabbed in the heart count as “cardiovascular failure”?

Monokuma: Well, the heart is a cardiovascular organ, and stabbing it would certainly cause it to fail, so… 

Noise: There you have it. Straight from the bear’s mouth. 

**_Takamaru: Your argument will crash and burn!_ **

Takamaru was acting desperate, but his arguments were getting fiercer and fiercer. 

Takamaru: This is Monokuma we’re talking about! 

Takamaru: Don’t you all remember when  **Shiro ‘drowned’** ? 

Takamaru: Whenever the file is vague, it means there’s something screwy going on! 

Takamaru: Otherwise, it’d just say the cause of death was a stab wound! 

Takamaru: I’m telling you it’s not that simple! 

Gale: I agree with you that the wording is suspicious… 

Gale: But like you said, Monokuma could just be making it sound vague to screw with us. 

Gale: That vagueness doesn’t disprove that he died from the stab wound. 

Takamaru: It doesn’t prove he died from the stab wound either! 

Takamaru: Sure, that knife could have killed him, but what if  **it was something else** ? 

Takamaru: What about his injuries? 

Takamaru: He had plenty of internal damage. 

Takamaru: If he started bleeding internally, that could be considered “ **cardiovascular failure** ”! 

Takamaru: That’s it! He died from his injuries! 

Takamaru: That means the **blackened is actually Hachise** ! 

**_Gale: I’ll slice through that argument!_ **

Takamaru: Could you cut me some slack instead? 

Gale: Noise and I talked about this just to be sure. I don’t think Haruki died from his injuries. 

Noise: Based on what we found when we were patching him up yesterday, his injuries didn’t pose any risk to his life. 

Usami: Yeah, we used Kari’s equipment to make sure his life wasn’t in danger. 

Hachise: I was extra careful cuz I don’t wanna get executed! 

Noise: I performed an x-ray on his body too, and I confirmed none of his marrow had gotten into his bloodstream. 

Yusuke: If his injuries did not cause his death, I can think of nothing besides the knife that could. 

Noise: Takamaru, dude, I know you’re just stickin’ up for your girl, but this has gone on long enough. These trials are such a fuckin’ pain. Can’t we just get this 1 over with?  **Case closed.**

**_Gale: No! That’s wrong!_ **

Noise: Bro, now is not the fuckin’ time. 

Gale: No, this is exactly the time. We’ve only just stated the obvious, and you’re ready to call it quits. What would Haruki say if he were here? 

Hachise: Something annoying, I’m sure. 

Gale: Exactly! He’d point out when someone might be lying, or he’d force us to entertain every crazy possibility. 

Usami: He thought it was fun…

Gale: Maybe that’s what it takes. We’re all ready to give up because we hate being here, right? But Haruki had fun with the trials. He  _ made  _ himself have fun with them. That’s why he was able to point out every last crazy possibility. 

Yusuke: I hardly believe now is the time for a eulogy. 

Noise: It’s easy to say good things about him now that he’s dead, but that bastard wasn’t exactly a role model. 

Takamaru: No, that’s exactly what he was! 

Yusuke: Surely, you are not serious. 

Takamaru: I’m dead serious, dead as Haruki in fact! 

Hachise: Do  _ not  _ start joking like him too. 

Takamaru: Oh, I’ll keep joking! I’ll keep acting like Haruki! 

Takamaru: I’ll keep pointing out every last goddamn crazy possibility! 

Takamaru: I’ll do whatever it takes to keep this trial going until Reiko speaks up for herself! 

Reiko: … 

All eyes turned to the Ultimate Thespian. Hachise coughed awkwardly and used her inhaler after the room fell silent. It was clear we had come as far as we could without her side of the story. After an agonizing minute or so, Reiko finally spoke. 

Reiko: I didn’t kill Haruki. 

Noise: And _here_ we the _fuck_ go! 

Takamaru: Oh, thank God! 

Usami: I knew you wouldn’t do it! Wait. If you didn’t, then who did? 

Hachise: Well, then, what happened, Reiko? We’re all ears. 

Yusuke: Please start at the beginning. 

Reiko: Okay, you asked for it. 

Reiko: I was walking downstairs with Takamaru, like Gale said, but we split up. 

Reiko: Takamaru said he was going to the arcade to play a flight sim, but I went to the infirmary. 

Reiko:  **I wanted to talk** to Haruki about the last trial. 

Reiko: I didn’t know what to say, but I had to talk to him. 

Reiko: It looked like  **he was sleeping** , but he jolted awake when I moved close to him. 

Reiko: I barely flinched before he had gotten out of his cast and pulled a knife from the bed. 

Reiko: He moved to stab me, but then he just… 

Reiko:  **He just stopped.**

Reiko: He was still for a moment, and then he started smiling. 

Reiko: After that, he fell back down, and he dropped the knife. 

Reiko: The knife landed in his chest. 

Reiko: I wasn’t really thinking.  **I was in shock.** I just grabbed the knife. 

Reiko: Then Gale and the others came in, and the announcement played. 

Reiko:  **I didn’t stab him.** I didn’t even touch the knife until after he was dead. 

**_Gale: I agree with that!_ **

Noise: What? You really believe all that crap? 

Gale: I want to believe in Reiko. If she did kill him, it would be easiest to confess and take the free trial. I know if I had killed Haruki, I wouldn’t have tried to get away with it. 

Usami: I say we at least entertain the possibility, for Haruki’s sake. 

Noise: When you put it that way, I want to believe her even less. 

Hachise: Is what Reiko’s describing really a possibility? 

Usami:  **It sounded like it** to me! 

Noise: She expects us to believe Haruki was packin’? 

Noise: We took all the knives out of his clothes when we were patching him up! 

Noise: So, where did the knife she had come from? 

Noise: I’ll tell you where.  **She brought it** with her to stab Haruki! 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Noise: Then you’d better have some fuckin’ proof! 

Gale: Remember I said we found another knife under the other bed in the infirmary. I think it’s reasonable to assume that Haruki stashed knives in both beds beforehand. 

Hachise: Miaya found the case where his throwing knives came from. I noticed some were missing, so she and I went looking for them. 

Usami:  **It was like a scavenger hunt** !

Hachise:  **We found knives** beneath a chair in the Ultimate Thespian's lab, under a loose tile in the kitchen, between some books in the Ultimate Prosecuting Attorney's lab… 

Usami: There was even one hidden in my lab! 

Hachise: I think  **he stashed them** all over the place, anywhere he could possibly get cornered or someone might try to catch him off guard. 

Yusuke: Then he had stashed the knives in the infirmary ahead of time, but were his arms not also broken? 

Yusuke: Could he really have attempted to stab Reiko in that state? 

Noise: Argh, I hate to say this, but it could  _ maybe _ be possible. 

Yusuke: What do you mean? 

Noise: Haruki was the Ultimate Circus Performer. I’ve seen him get hurt partway through a show and still pull off some wild-ass stunt right afterward—even with a broken arm or some bullshit like that. 

Takamaru: I knew it!  **Reiko didn’t stab him!** On the contrary, he tried to stab her! 

Noise: Plus, when I compared his x-rays, the fracture in that arm was worse than it was yesterday. It was like he had strained it or some shit. 

Usami: But why would he do that? Reiko just wanted to talk.  **He had no reason** to attack her. 

**_Gale: No! That’s wrong!_ **

Usami: What? But if she didn’t attack him then… 

Gale: Haruki told me something earlier this morning. He said, “The next person who comes through that door will be here to kill me.” He knew about the motive too. 

Reiko: Then, Haruki just assumed I was there to kill him and attacked in self-defense? 

Hachise: I mean you’ve got the motive, sugar-tits. Avenge your beloved Ultimate Troupe with no fear of getting executed? It’s a pretty sweet deal. 

Takamaru: And since Haruki knew about Monokuma’s motive, he figured he could kill you first without the hassle of the class trial either. 

Noise: So what? Did Haruki really just drop the goddamn knife on himself? If he was going to kill her, why’s she still here? 

Usami: Maybe he couldn’t bring himself to kill his friend! 

Yusuke: I do not believe he was that sort of person. 

Ren: Yeah. 

Hachise: If he did just drop the knife on himself, then that would make Haruki the blackened. Accidental suicide is still suicide. 

Noise: What part of ‘Ultimate Circus Performer’ didn’t you hear? If he was O.G. enough to stab Reiko with a broken arm, he was O.G. enough not to drop the fuckin’ knife at the last second. 

Reiko: It didn’t look like he hesitated. It was more like he froze. Something stopped him. 

Yusuke: Perhaps it was the notorious “cardiovascular failure” that has been mentioned. 

Noise: The fuckboy didn’t just have a random goddamn heart attack! 

Hachise: No way! It wouldn’t count as a murder if he did! 

Takamaru: Then what the hell stopped him? 

I considered a number of possibilities. Could it really have been a  **heart attack** ? Maybe he hesitated because of his  **friendship** with Reiko. If that wasn’t it, could it have been his  **broken arm** after all? Finally, I reached a conclusion that made sense considering everything we had discussed so far. 

Gale: Haruki could have been  **poisoned** . 

Yusuke: Poisoned? Surely that could not be possible. 

Noise:  **That’s pretty far** from the standard deviation. 

Usami: Um, actually, I think it might be possible. 

Yusuke: But where would the killer have acquired the poison in the first place? 

Takamaru: What about the MonoMono Machine? 

Hachise: That’s where  **I got my crossbow** and arrows! 

Noise: You get your fuckin’ aerosol bombs and needle launcher there too? 

Hachise: Teehee,  **that’s a secret** ! 

Yusuke: If the  **machine had knives** and arrows, poison may not be much of a stretch. 

Reiko: Why don’t we just ask then? 

Reiko: Monokuma, is there any poison in the MonoMono Machine? 

Monokuma: Nope! The almighty MonoMono Machine has unique weapons, but not poison!

Noise: Then  **there’s 0 way** for the killer to get poison! 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Noise: Alright, wise guy, why don’t you spell it out then? 

Gale: I can still think of one other place the killer could have acquired poison. 

Takamaru: Right! There’s also the poison in the infirmary! 

Usami: During the last investigation, I was checking the cabinets. 

Usami: It looked like a bottle of poison **was missing** . 

Reiko: None of us can unlock that cabinet, though, right? Kari made us all try. 

Noise: And  **we definitely would’ve noticed** if the cabinet had been busted. 

Usami: Maybe the permissions on the lock changed? 

Monokuma: Why would I bother with identity-based locks if I was just going to scramble them? 

Yusuke: Perhaps  **you were simply mistaken** about the missing poison, Miaya.

Usami: I mean I could be, but…

Usami: I really thought there was one more bottle when I first checked. 

Takamaru: Wait. Could Hachise open it? 

Hachise: Huh? Why would I be able to? 

Takamaru: Well, your  **handbook did unlock the backdoor** in Kari’s lab, after all. 

Noise: Right, Kari didn’t check yours, so by process of elimination,  **it must have been you** ! 

**_Gale: No! That’s wrong!_ **

Noise: Really, man? Twice in a fuckin’ row? 

Gale: I was with Hachise the other night, and I got her to show me. Her handbook doesn’t open the poison cabinet either. 

Noise: Goddammit! Why is it never simple? 

Takamaru: Is that it then? None of us could get our hands on any poison, so  **it couldn’t be poison** ? 

Reiko: No, that line of reasoning may still have merit. 

Hachise: You’re just saying that to save your own skin. 

Reiko: Think about it. Poison could definitely cause “cardiovascular failure,” and it would explain what I saw. 

Noise: Ain’t that convenient? The 1 scenario that backs up your story is fuckin’ impossible. 

Takamaru: Whether or not Reiko is telling the truth, **someone** **took that poison**.

Usami: Otherwise, how would it go missing? 

Takamaru: Just because we don’t know  _ how _ they took it doesn’t mean  **it didn’t happen** . 

Noise: What, we gotta solve that mystery now too? 

Yusuke: I believe it warrants investigation, regardless of whether  **Haruki was indeed poisoned** . 

Noise: What if Monokuma just moved 1 of ‘em to fuck with us? 

Monokuma: No way!  **I haven’t touched it** ! That poison was made  _ by  _ students,  _ for  _ students,  _ of  _ students! 

Monokuma: Okay, so maybe that last one is a lie, but I didn’t touch it! 

Hachise: Then we just need to figure out who took the poison. 

Reiko: Who was in the infirmary before Miaya noticed it was missing? 

Hachise: Ooh! We can  **check Kari’s stalkerish data** to find out! 

**_Gale: No! That’s wrong!_ **

Usami: Unfortunately, Gale is right. I didn’t want to panic everyone, but somebody deleted all of Kari’s data from the Ultimate Forensic Criminalist's lab. 

Gale: After Kari’s execution, we just left the lab unlocked. It’s possible whoever took the poison deleted the data to cover their tracks. 

Yusuke: Then we still have no means of ascertaining who took the poison. 

Hachise: That may be true, but it’s not like we’re out of leads. 

Takamaru: It sure feels like we are. 

Hachise: Think about it. Knowing who took the poison isn’t nearly as important as knowing who administered it. 

Yusuke: True, I suppose that person would be the blackened. 

Noise: Wouldn’t that still be Reiko then? She was the only 1 there at the time of death. 

Takamaru: That’s only if the poison killed him instantly! 

Usami: That’s right! There could have been a delay! 

Reiko: What about when everyone was treating Haruki’s injuries? 

Reiko: Could someone have administered the poison then? 

Noise: If that’s true, the only 1 with an alibi is Gale since he was unconscious the whole time. 

Hachise: Unless my Galey poisoned him after we all went back to our rooms for the night. 

Usami: What do you mean  _ your  _ Galey?

Noise: Please don’t take her seriously. 

Hachise: Yeah, I’m just teasing! Galey didn’t have any poison on him. I checked! 

Takamaru: You checked? What exactly were you checking? 

Hachise: Well, everyone was scrambling to patch him and Haruki up! 

Reiko: I admit we were pretty frantic. Anybody could have slipped Haruki’s poison into the different meds we used. 

Yusuke: Then we agree Haruki was poisoned during his treatment. 

_ No, that doesn’t seem right. I have to think. Monokuma said something when we first found the poisons. It feels like so long ago now, but I have to remember.  _

Gale: I don’t think that’s right. When we first found the infirmary, Monokuma said **the** **poisons were fast-acting.**

Takamaru: Oh, yeah, I remember that too now that you mention it. 

Yusuke: Hmm, that still does not necessarily mean they were instantaneous, but… 

Noise: You could hardly call it “fast-acting” if it took hours  h such that  h ≥ 24 to kill the bastard. 

Usami: Wait a minute. Aside from Reiko, the only person who saw Haruki today was Gale. 

Yusuke: What of Takamaru? Does he not also lack an alibi? 

Reiko: He was with me until we split up, and I went straight to the infirmary after that. I don’t think he could’ve gone there without me knowing. 

Hachise: Well, Galey, did you poison Haruki? 

Gale: What! No! Why would I, and wouldn’t I have admitted to it if I did? 

Ren: Did you see anything while you were there? 

Gale: No, we just talked for a minute. I brought him his breakfast and—

Noise: Aw, shit… 

Reiko: Does that mean… 

Takamaru: Did somebody poison Haruki’s breakfast? 

Reiko: If that’s what happened, then it had to be Gale or Ren, right? 

Noise: Fuckin’, yep, Gale could’ve poisoned it on the way to the infirmary, or Ren could have poisoned it when he was prepping it. 

Hachise: He  _ is _ the Ultimate Phantom Thief. Surely  **he could break into a locked medicine cabinet** and steal one measly bottle without us noticing. 

Ren: …

Yusuke: Do not forget that  **you were the only other person** in the kitchen while said Phantom Thief was preparing breakfast. 

Noise: Slipping poison into someone’s breakfast while Ren was preparing so she could frame him does sound like the kind of shit Hachise would pull. 

Hachise: Okay, then, if it was me, what was my motive? 

Takamaru: You just wanted to finish what you started, and with Monokuma’s motive,  **you had nothing to lose** ! 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Hachise: Dumbass, if I was taking advantage of Monokuma’s motive, why wouldn’t I just admit to killing him? 

Gale: Not to mention, if Hachise or Ren poisoned Haruki’s breakfast while preparing it, that would’ve been before Monokuma gave us the motive. 

Usami: Then, Gale, are you saying you did it after all? 

Gale: No, I already told you I didn’t! 

Noise: Why the fuck are we even here? 

Reiko: Huh, where’d that come from? 

Hachise: We’re here because  **someone murdered Haruki** , obviously. 

Noise: I know that! I’m wondering why the fuck we’re  _ here _ ! 

Usami: Um, because  **this is where the trials take place** ? 

Takamaru: Because  **Monokuma will kill us** if we don’t participate in the trials? 

Yusuke: Because  **we seek the truth** behind the death of our classmate? 

Reiko: So  **I can clear my name** ? 

Monokuma: So  **Gale can shout an objection** every few paragraphs! 

Noise: Everyone, shut the fuck up for 2 seconds! 

Usami: Eep! 

Noise: We’re talkin’ about poison this and murder that. Haruki’s dead; I get that, and maybe it ain’t as simple as it 1st looked, but why the fuck is whoever did it keepin’ quiet about it? We might be pissed they did it, yeah, but ain’t that still better than them or us gettin’ axed over the damn thing? 

Usami: I don’t want anyone else to get executed… 

Noise: I entertained the hypothetical mystery about the poison for as long as I could stand, so now we’re gonna talk about  _ my  _ mystery! Why the exponential fuck  **won’t the killer come clean** ? 

Yusuke: It is obvious that the killer’s intention was not simply to kill Haruki, but rather to graduate as the blackened. 

Usami: What if nobody poisoned Haruki, and he did just drop the knife on himself? If Haruki’s his own killer, he couldn’t admit to it. 

Noise: I’m tellin’ you the poison thing is a bust. It’s not like  **we have any evidence** that his breakfast was poisoned. 

Yusuke: However, **it is the only way** to reconcile Reiko’s testimony with Haruki’s talent. 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Monokuma: Told you so! 

Gale: Hear me out. Haruki’s the Ultimate Circus Performer, so it doesn’t make sense for him to  _ accidentally  _ drop the knife, even with a broken arm and all his injuries. 

Yusuke: Right, that has been established. 

Usami: Then something stopped him, like we said! 

Takamaru: No, that’s not necessarily right. 

Reiko: I see what you’re getting at. 

Yusuke: Hold on. You couldn’t possibly mean… 

Reiko: What if it wasn’t an accident?

Noise: Are you sayin’ that motherfucker dropped it on purpose? 

Usami: That’s horrible! 

Yusuke: It does seem rather odd for the knife to have landed precisely between his ribs by coincidence. 

Usami: That is strange, but… 

Usami: Suicide? Haruki? Seriously? 

Hachise: What would be the point? 

With closed eyes, I concentrated to consider a variety of possibilities. Different words and letters scrambled for relevance in my thoughts. I thought back to earlier, considered every detail I could conceive. Finally, one possibility formed in my mind. 

Gale: It was a  **practical joke** . 

Takamaru: You can’t possibly be serious. 

Gale: No, I’m serious. It’s Haruki who wasn’t serious. 

Yusuke: Suicide is no laughing matter! 

Gale: Maybe not to us, but Haruki could laugh at anything. 

Reiko: I know we called him the Ultimate Class Clown, but this is… 

Hachise: I’d say killing yourself is going a little far for a prank. 

Noise: More like zetta too far…

Usami: Yeah! Haruki said he wanted to live! He wanted to escape to see his sister! 

Hachise: Do you have any evidence to support this?

Gale: When I talked to Haruki this morning, he was overcome with  **despair** . With his injuries, he said he’d lost his talent as the Ultimate Circus Performer. It was like he was already dead. 

Yusuke: Unfortunately, we only have your word for Haruki’s testimony. 

Hachise: And since you’re a prime suspect if he was poisoned, that doesn’t mean much! 

Yusuke: That is not what I meant! Although, I suppose it is true… 

Noise: If the fucker was gonna off himself, and he had the knife before Reiko got there like she says, why’d he wait ‘til that exact moment to do it? 

 Gale: He must have wanted to trigger the  **body discovery announcement** . We have no evidence that the infirmary is soundproofed like our rooms and the Ultimate Therapist's lab. 

Yusuke: You are suggesting that perhaps he heard our approach? 

Takamaru: If he killed himself right before someone walked in the room, he’d know how it would have looked for Reiko. 

Ren: But how’d he know we’d come?

Yusuke: Indeed, I doubt he could predict anyone would interrupt his and Reiko’s meeting. 

Noise: Bastard didn’t need to.  **He was the Ultimate Circus Performer** , remember? 

Reiko: Haruki excelled at scripted performances, but he was also a master of improv. 

Usami: Improv acting is one thing, but improvising your own death!  **That’s crazy** ! 

Takamaru: Haruki  _ was  _ crazy! 

Noise: If you think about it logically, of course  **he wouldn’t off himself** .

Noise: And, logically, it makes sense that  **Reiko would kill him** . 

Takamaru: That makes it the perfect setup!

Hachise: It is perfect, a little too perfect, but you’re suggesting he didn’t plan it, and instead he improvised his own death and framed Reiko just because there was an opportunity to? 

Usami: But if we had voted for Reiko,  **we would have been executed** ! 

Reiko: With the blackened already dead, there’d be nobody left to graduate. 

Hachise: That sounds like Monokuma’s perfect ending. 

Usami: Then, Haruki’s prank wasn’t just to kill himself. He wanted to kill all of us too? 

Takamaru: If he’d killed Reiko,  **he could have gotten away with another murder** .

Takamaru: Well, that is if I didn’t beat him to death. 

Takamaru: Actually, maybe he hesitated because  **he was scared of me** ! 

Reiko: Dear, I appreciate the thought, but I don’t think that was it. 

Noise: Even if he had gotten away with it,  **he’d still be an infirm** . 

**_Gale: I agree with that!_ **

Hachise: I’d think that one was obvious. 

Gale: What would Haruki do if he had gotten away with it? Could he really become the blackened and graduate in that state? Even if he did, could he have gotten off the boat by himself? And if we managed to survive the killing game, he still thought his career was over. He had nothing to live for. He’d never perform again, but with this, he could pull off one last show, the Ultimate Performance, one that spelled the end for him and all of his classmates. 

Yusuke: How disturbing… 

Usami: Maybe we should go over everything we know so far, just to be safe… 

**_Gale: This is what really happened!_ **

Gale: This case started the other day when Hachise and Haruki got into a fight. At the end of the showdown, Haruki was caught in the blast of one of the ship’s bombs, which Hachise triggered with a device that transmitted an electromagnetic signal. The explosion seriously wounded Haruki, who had to be treated and practically hospitalized in the infirmary. I was injured too, but not gravely. After resting overnight in the infirmary, I was able to leave the bed, but Haruki remained incapacitated. 

Gale: When I brought Haruki his breakfast from Ren, he told me he was certain the next person to come through the door would kill him. Perhaps that was the beginning of his plan to frame his would-be killer for his death. Later, Reiko entered the room to confront him about the deaths of Ann and Charlotte that led to our last trial. Haruki likely pretended to be asleep so Reiko would approach. Once she was close enough, he waited for an opportunity. 

Gale: That opportunity came when he heard Ren, Yusuke, and I approaching the infirmary from the hallway outside. In the blink of an eye, he discarded his cast and retrieved one of his throwing knives from his hospital bed. Since Miaya found the empty case for his knives in the Ultimate Circus Performer's lab, it’s likely that’s where he obtained the weapon. Haruki kept the knives a secret from Kari and hid them in choice locations throughout the ship in case of emergencies. The infirmary’s beds were one such location, likely as a contingency in case he was wounded. 

Gale: Using the knife, Haruki lunged as if to stab Reiko, but at the last second, he withdrew, and instead, he dropped the blade onto his own heart. Without giving Reiko time to flee the scene of the crime, Haruki ensured that we would walk in at the worst possible moment. After all, anyone who saw that would just assume that Reiko had killed him. She had the motive, and she was the only person near him at his time of death. 

Gale: Reiko fled the scene before everyone arrived at the infirmary, so she wasn’t there when Monokuma offered to let the killer go free. I’m pretty sure, however, that Monokuma gave Reiko the same offer while she hid in her room. Reiko denied the offer, of course, because she wasn’t the killer. In fact, the reason the killer didn’t confess to Haruki’s murder is because they couldn’t. The killer and the victim were one in the same. 

Gale: All of this was done in the hopes that we would rush to vote for Reiko as the blackened. Then, all of us would be executed when we guessed his killer incorrectly. Wrought with despair, Haruki resolved to put on one last show, a grand finale for himself, and a grand finale for all of us. Such a thing might truly be considered the Ultimate Performance. 

Gale: If you consider the circumstances of Haruki’s death and the killer’s motives, the killer behind the death of Haruki Haruharu could only be—

**_Hachise: You’re all going to die._ **

Gale: H-Hachise? 

Hachise: Sorry, Galey, I can’t let you finish. If we start voting time, and everyone votes for Haruki, we’ll all be executed. That means I would die, so I  _ can’t  _ let that happen. 

Takamaru: Wait. After all that, are you saying Haruki  _ isn’t  _ the killer? 

Hachise: That’s exactly what I’m saying. 

Hachise: Gale told a lovely story just now, very convincing, but sadly that’s all it was: a story. 

Yusuke: I believe at this point, we will need to see some proof. 

Hachise: Alright, here’s your proof. 

Hachise took a moment to use her inhaler before pocketing it. Then, she retrieved a bottle from that same pocket. The label on the bottle read, “Monokuma’s Special Poison! (For poisoning use only!)” Hachise opened the bottle and turned it upside down, but nothing fell out. Then, she turned it to show us the bottle’s interior. It was completely empty. 

Usami: It’s the missing poison! 

Hachise: That’s right. It’s Monokuma’s special poison. It’s a tasteless, colorless, and odorless powder that causes pectoral muscle contractions and cardiac arrest once it’s digested. 

Hachise: It takes a little time for the stomach to break it down into its lethal state, but it’s quite potent, wouldn’t you agree? 

Reiko: Then, Haruki was poisoned after all? 

Takamaru: Hachise poisoned him! She’s the blackened! 

Hachise: I’m not the blackened. 

Noise: Oh yeah? Then why the fuck do you have that? 

Hachise: If I were the blackened, I wouldn’t speak up. The fact that I didn’t confess at the start would mean I was planning to graduate. 

 Hachise: If that were true, I would have just let Galey finish his story so you’d all vote for Haruki, and I’d go free. 

Hachise: However, I didn’t kill Haruki, but I do know who did. 

Takamaru: Oh really? Then why didn’t you speak up sooner? 

Hachise: Because none of you trust me. If I’d gone pointing fingers after showing you this bottle, you’d just accuse me of trying to pass the blame, and you’d all assumed I’d poisoned him. 

Reiko: What makes now any different? 

Hachise: I just saved all of your lives. Why would I do that if I were the blackened? 

Hachise: I figure now, you might at least consider what I have to say. 

Takamaru: Hold the radio. If Hachise didn’t poison Haruki’s breakfast, does that mean Ren did? 

Usami: But if he were the killer, why didn’t he confess? 

Noise: That shifty bastard must’ve been trying to graduate and get us all executed! 

Ren shook his head. 

Ren: Too many of my friends have died already. 

Yusuke: No! If he had done it, how would Hachise have acquired the empty bottle? 

Reiko: Right, if he poisoned Haruki’s breakfast to graduate, wouldn’t he dispose of the evidence? 

Yusuke: Precisely, he could easily have hidden it in his room or locked it away in the Ultimate Phantom Thief's lab. 

Hachise: Ren didn’t poison Haruki’s breakfast. 

Hachise: I did. 

Noise: Then the fuck was that shit about not being the blackened? 

Hachise: Think of it this way, Noise. 

Hachise: Let’s say for example that Haruki had been killed by a gunshot to the head. 

Hachise: Now let’s say that before he was murdered, I loaded the gun and handed it to you. 

Hachise: Then, let’s say you went to the infirmary and shot Haruki in the head. 

Hachise: Who would be Haruki’s killer? 

Noise: I would, of course! 

Hachise: Just because I poisoned the food doesn’t mean I killed Haruki. 

Reiko: You’re out of your mind! 

Hachise: Nope! The blackened who killed Haruki is Gale Rovere, the one who poisoned him! 

All of us stood flabbergasted for a long moment. We tried to process what Hachise had said, but none of us looked convinced by her roundabout logic. 

Gale: What!  **That doesn’t make any sense** ! 

Takamaru: That has to be the biggest load of horseshit you have ever said! 

Takamaru: And **you’ve said a** ** _lot_** of horseshit! 

Usami: It’s not like Gale knew the food was poisoned! 

Hachise: What  **he knew** or didn’t know doesn’t matter. 

Hachise: Kari didn’t know she would kill Lucille by kissing her. 

Hachise: And yet Kari was still the blackened. 

Gale: But  **you’re the one** who poisoned his food! 

Hachise: Loading the metaphorical gun makes me an accomplice, but I’m just an accomplice. 

Hachise: Monokuma said the  **blackened is the one who actually does the killing** , right? 

Hachise: As an accomplice, I’m spotless. 

Gale: What if  **Ren hadn’t stopped me** from eating Haruki’s breakfast? 

Yusuke: The  **poison could have killed you** . 

Gale: Exactly, would that make me my own killer since I ate the food? 

Gale:  **Of course not!**

**_Noise: I agree, 100%!_ **

Gale: At least someone sees reason! 

Noise: Yeah, in the formula Gale just described, Hachise would definitely be the killer. Poisoning somebody’s food is the same as murdering them. Hifumi wasn’t her own killer just because she unknowingly triggered Kagami’s trap, after all. 

Hachise: You may be right under normal circumstances, but this situation isn’t normal. 

Usami:  **Poisoning is poisoning** , Hachise! 

Hachise: Is it?  **Think about the victim** in this case. 

Takamaru: Yeah, what about him? 

Hachise: C’mon. Don’t make me spell everything out for you. 

Reiko: You didn’t seem to mind a moment ago. 

Yusuke: This is nonsense. 

Yusuke:  **We should vote for Hachise** now before she lures us deeper into deception. 

Takamaru: Yeah! Your smokescreen won’t save you now, Hachise! 

Hachise: Whether I’m right or wrong, I die if you vote for me. 

Hachise: But if I’m right, all of you will die too. 

Hachise:  **You should consider** this carefully. 

Reiko: What’s there to consider? 

Usami: We’ve already gone over everything… 

Gale: Haruki died because  **he ate the breakfast** that  _ you  _ poisoned! 

**_Noise: That’s fuckin’ wrong!_ **

Gale: Noise? What are you—

Noise: Haruki couldn’t have eaten the food by himself. 

Takamaru: Dude, you can’t seriously be buying what Hachise’s selling. 

Noise: Shut the fuck up! You think I like listening to this bitch? But if we get this wrong, we die. Period. No do-overs. We  _ have _ to be careful. 

Usami: Well, Noise, what do you have to say? 

Noise: The nerves in Haruki’s face and neck were damaged by the explosion. He couldn’t chew food by himself, and he could barely swallow his own goddamn spit. I had to feed him by hand before we got the IV hooked up. 

Hachise: Well, Galey,  **did Haruki take the poisoned food** from you and eat it after you left? 

Gale: No… 

Hachise:  **Did Haruki chew the poisoned food** by himself? 

Gale: No. 

Hachise:  **Could Haruki swallow the poisoned food** on his own? 

Gale: No!

Hachise:  **Did Haruki ask you** to give him the poisoned food? 

Gale: No, goddammit! 

Hachise: Then tell us who administered the poison to Haruki!

Gale: I’m not buying into your bullshit, Hachise! 

Takamaru: This whole mess is just another goddamned technicality! 

Takamaru: We know what happened! Hachise poisoned Haruki’s food! 

Usami: Maybe  **we should stop shouting** …

Reiko: Takamaru, calm down. 

Takamaru: No! I will not calm down! This is horseshit! 

Takamaru: In a real court of law,  **any jury would find Hachise guilty** of murder! 

Takamaru: That means  **she’s the blackened** ! 

**_Noise: That’s fuckin’ wrong!_ **

Takamaru: Stop! Noise! Fucking stop it! You’re buying her lies, and you’re gonna get us all killed! 

Noise: You’re the 1 trying to make a rash decision just cuz you’re pissed off! Listen to me! This isn’t a court of law! This ain’t about guilt or innocence! It’s about who did the actual killing! 

Hachise: That’s right. The only thing that matters is the blackened. 

Hachise: There’s no gray area. It’s just black and white. 

Hachise: Isn’t that right, Monokuma? 

Monokuma: … 

Gale: You bastard bear! You can’t seriously count feeding him breakfast as murder! 

Yusuke: Well, Monokuma, speak up! In the case we are describing, who would be considered the blackened? 

Monokuma: Telling you that now would be the same as giving away who the killer is. 

Takamaru: Bullshit! Then whoever we vote for, you can just decide the other one counts as the blackened and have us all killed? 

Hachise: Now do you see! The rules don’t matter! 

Hachise: You’ve all been pacified by the illusion that the rules offer you some protection. 

Hachise: But Monokuma can rig the trials however he likes! 

Hachise: If he wanted to kill Haruki in the last trial, he could just as easily have decided the killer of the most recent body that was found was the blackened. 

Hachise: But he wanted Kari dead. Her leadership was a threat. 

Hachise: That’s why he ruled that the killer whose victim was discovered first was the blackened. 

Hachise: He hides behind the illusion of an impartial arbiter. 

Hachise: He tells us our decisions determine who lives and dies. 

Hachise: But he’s the one who determines if our decisions are right or wrong! 

Hachise: And  **I’m calling his fucking bluff** ! 

**_Monokuma: I see through your arguments!_ **

Monokuma: Fine! I give! Have it your way! 

Monokuma: If what you’ve said up ‘til now is true, you can think of the poison like a lethal injection, even if it’s technically a lethal  _ ingestion _ . 

Monokuma: If a doctor injects a patient with euthanasia, even if that patient is terminally ill and willing, the doctor is  _ technically  _ taking the patient’s life. 

Monokuma: That’s why in the case of a doctor-assisted suicide, the doctor gives the injection and the knowledge of how to use it to the patient. 

Monokuma: That way, the patient can choose to take their own life or not at the time of their own choosing. 

Monokuma: Now let’s say the doctor has a clumsy assistant, and a different doctor tells the assistant to administer an injection of medicine to the patient.

Monokuma: As far as the second doctor knows, that medicine should have been left in the patient’s room, so they tell the assistant to look there. 

Monokuma: The assistant finds the lethal injection in the patient’s room, so the assistant accidentally administers the euthanasia that was left with the terminally ill patient. 

Monokuma: In that case, the assistant is the one who technically killed the patient. Even if the assistant didn’t know the injection was lethal. Even if the doctor is the one who left a lethal injection in the patient’s room. Even if the assistant isn’t technically at fault. 

Monokuma: The first doctor didn’t administer the lethal injection. 

Monokuma: That doctor didn’t give the lethal injection to the assistant. 

Monokuma: That doctor didn’t tell the assistant to administer the euthanasia. 

Monokuma: That doctor didn’t tell the assistant to administer anything! 

Monokuma: So, the first doctor couldn’t be considered the blackened. 

All of us were left speechless. Hachise had backed Monokuma into a corner, and now, if what Monokuma said was true, then the blackened really was…

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Gale: It doesn’t matter what metaphors you come up with! 

Gale: That’s not what happened! 

Gale: I didn’t kill Haruki! 

Gale: Hachise poisoned him! 

Gale: She’s hiding behind a technicality! 

Gale: She’s going to get us all killed! 

Gale: Monokuma’s playing along because he wants us to make the wrong choice! 

Gale: You can’t possibly think I’m responsible for this! 

Gale: Hachise is the blackened! 

Gale: If you vote for me, we’re screwed! 

Gale: I’m not the killer! 

Gale: I was set up!  **She targeted me** because I’ve been discovering the truth of the other cases! 

**_Noise: I’ll solve for the truth right now!_ **

Hachise: Shoe’s on the other foot now, Galey. 

Noise: She wasn’t targeting you, Gale. She was targeting  **the Ultimate Phantom Thief** . She noticed he was making an extra breakfast for Haruki, and she had every reason to think he would feed it to that clown. 

Hachise: Wow! You figured it out! 

Yusuke: How dare you! 

Ren: You’ve got some nerve! 

Hachise: I was hoping to kill two birds with one stone. Haruki was a real pain in the ass, and I can’t have the leader of the Phantom Thieves brainwashing me, now can I? 

Noise: If she could trick Ren into killing Haruki for her, Haruki would be dead, and Ren would be executed as the blackened. 

Usami: But Gale took the breakfast to Haruki instead… 

Takamaru: This is seriously messed up… 

Reiko: I can’t believe she managed this. 

Hachise: Oh? Then let’s go over it again one more time from the beginning. Gale, would you do the honors? 

Gale: Go fuck yourself. 

Noise: I’ll do it. We should make sure we’re all on the same page. 

**_Noise: This is what actually happened._ **

Noise: Like Gale said before, this case started the other day when Hachise and Haruki decided to duke it out. Haruki had us all on the ropes, but Hachise lured him into a trap and blew him to fuckin’ hell and back. Haruki’s whole body was jacked, so we had to spend the entire goddamn day patching him up. Since all of Haruki’s limbs were broken, and he had nerve damage across various parts of his body, he was essentially trapped in the infirmary. 

Noise: The next morning, Ren was makin’ breakfast for a bunch of us as usual. Hachise was in the kitchen with him, actin’ like she was there to help or some shit, but really, she was hatching a plan. I don’t know how the fuck she got it, but somehow, this bitch got her hands on the missing bottle of poison from the infirmary. When she noticed Ren makin’ an extra breakfast, she must’ve figured it was for Haruki, so she poisoned it while Ren wasn’t lookin’. 

Noise: Since the poison was odorless, colorless, and tasteless, 0 of us were any the wiser. Ren took the poisoned breakfast to the cafeteria, where he gave it to the unwitting killer. Without knowing the food had been tampered with, the killer took the breakfast to Haruki in the infirmary. It sounds like the stubborn son of a bitch turned it down, but the killer was persistent. Still, Haruki couldn’t actually eat solid food since he had nerve damage to his face and neck, so the killer had to feed Haruki the poison himself. 

Noise: But the poison didn’t take effect immediately. The killer left the infirmary without realizing what they'd done. A little later, Reiko showed up to talk to Haruki about the last trial. I’m sure they had a lot of shit to sort out, what with Haruki bein’ the attacker and all. I’ve got 0 clue what Reiko was plannin’, but Haruki didn’t wait to find out. The weasel pretended to be asleep so she’d come closer to wake him up, and then he tried to kill her. 

Noise: Haruki got out of his cast and grabbed a knife he had stashed in the infirmary’s bed before he was injured. He figured she wanted him dead, and he was aiming to kill her first and then use Monokuma’s motive to dodge the consequences. Unfortunately for him, he never got the chance. The poison took hold at that crucial moment, and the son of a bitch froze. When he fell back, his razor-sharp knife fell between his ribs, makin’ it look like he’d been stabbed deliberately. Ironically, although the poison did kill Haruki, it probably saved Reiko. 

Noise: By  _ another _ uncanny coincidence, that’s when the killer returned to the infirmary with Ren and Yusuke. Their entry triggered the body discovery announcement, and Reiko bolted since it definitely looked like she was the 1 who’d offed the clown. The rest of us came runnin’, and then Monokuma showed up to ask the killer if they wanted to cash in on the motive. At that point, however, the killer couldn’t confess. How could they when they didn’t even know they were the killer?

Noise: That means the killer is the person who unwittingly poisoned Haruki, and though it infinitely pisses me off to say it, that person is the Ultimate Adventurer, Gale Rovere. 

Gale: … 

The room fell deathly silent. I had said everything I could. I would just be rambling now. I had to put my faith in my classmates, in my friends. “Well, it sounds like everyone’s said all they have to say, so it’s about time we got on with the voting!” Monokuma declared. “Even if you’re still somewhat confused, be sure to vote for someone, or else you’ll be punished!” 

Kari’s and Haruki’s faces were crossed out on the touchscreens that unfolded from our podiums. Harder than I meant to, I mashed my finger down on Hachise’s picture on the lower-right. Hachise and Noise would vote for me, but surely Ren and Yusuke had my back. Takamaru didn’t sound convinced by Hachise’s argument either, so if either Miaya or Reiko voted for her, we’d be in the clear. 

To my horror, however, the large television behind Monokuma did not reflect my predictions after our touchscreens finally folded out of sight. Beside Hachise’s name were only three tally marks, and next to mine were five. “Congratulations!” Monokuma cheered. “This trial’s blackened is the one and only Gale Rovere!” 

“You’re full of shit!” I shouted as I pointed at Monokuma defiantly. 

“Puhuhu, actually, I’m full of stuffing,” Monokuma taunted back. 

“I demand a mistrial! How does what I did count as murder?” I protested. The room responded, however, only with deafening silence. “Someone,” I said as I looked around, “anyone…” I turned to the Phantom Thieves, but Yusuke was covering his face with his hand, and Ren was hidden behind his bangs. When I looked at Noise, he only scowled and clenched his fist. Takamaru had turned around, facing away from Monokuma and myself. Reiko bit her lip and turned her head when I looked in her direction. Miaya fumbled with her e-Handbook and tried to type something, but her shaky hands dropped the device, and when she knelt to the floor to retrieve it, she fell. “Someone, object!” I pleaded. “What about…” By reflex or instinct, I turned to Lucille’s podium, but instead, I was met only with the brace-faced smile of Hachise Kurotsuki, the Ultimate Survivor who had taken her place at the trial grounds. 

“Now then! I’ve prepared a very special punishment for Gale Rovere, the Ultimate Adventurer! Let’s give it everything we’ve got!” Monokuma exclaimed as he slammed his gavel onto a button that appeared in front of his chair. “It’s  **_punishment time_ ** !” Without thinking, I made a mad dash toward the elevator. All I could think was that I had to leave, but just as I thought I may reach the lift, something snapped around my neck. 

Like a dog darting away from its owner toward some unattainable prize, I was yanked backward by my new collar, which dragged me by a chain through a new opening in the trial grounds’ wall. I kicked and screamed. I gripped my collar and furiously fidgeted for anything that might give me a way out, but there was nothing. Suddenly, I was hoisted into the air. I had to keep a death grip on the collar just to keep it from strangling me as I found myself unable to breathe. 

When the chain set me down, whatever ground beneath me gave way slightly before springing back up. My collar released, and I regained my composure long enough to see that I had been placed on the edge of a baby-blue diving board attached to a large wooden pillar shaped like a ship’s mast. Above me, Monokuma’s television displayed the words, “WALK THE PLANK”! Below me, I saw a glass vat like the one Emiko had been dropped into. However, instead of acid, this one was full of water and mechanical sharks, each of which was half-black and half-white and sported a red eye like Monokuma’s on its black side. 

_ Think. There’s got to be a way out.  _ Quickly, I reached into my pocket and grabbed my e-Handbook.  _ No, I can’t drop into Mementos. I’d just fall into the abyss. Without the navigator, Takamaru couldn’t come in after me to catch me with his Persona.  _ As I hesitated, the diving board beneath me detached from the mast, and I fell down toward the vat. 

“Hachise Kurotsuki!” I shouted, and I turned toward my enemy as I fell. I watched in what felt like slow motion as the Ultimate Survivor reached toward her eyepatch. Without dropping her brace-faced smile, Hachise removed the patch, exposing a blood-red eye with purplish black sclera. With both her eyes exposed, she winked at me with her good eye. 

I felt the splash. Then I felt the teeth. Then I felt nothing. 

 


	10. Chapter 5: Paradise Lost @ Sea - Daily Life

Another piece-of-shit morning on this piece-of-shit boat, there I was starin’ like a 1/2-dead moth at the bright-ass sphere creeping up the sea’s x-axis. I took a long drag from last night’s winnings before sighing out a torus of smoke. That bitch had made an ass of me, made an ass of all of us, and the guy who’d been carryin’ our asses through these fuckin’ trials paid the price. I watched those machines dig into him like piranhas out of a shitty cartoon. Pretty sure the water was just blood at that point, I couldn’t even see fractions of the poor son of a bitch. 

 _All items_ s _in_ S _such that_ S _is the set of all students are gonna be makin’ their own food from now on._ She’d come up with another way, though. I knew she would. She’d survive, and to do that, she’d win this fuckin’ game if that’s what it took. That was her talent, after all. In a normal game, I’d have her pegged. Game theory was my shit, but in a game of survival, I was out of my element. _I hate losing._ I hadn’t lost a game since Kudo-sensei kicked my ass at billiards. No, that wasn’t true either. That other bitch had beaten me too. 

Some light footsteps pattered up behind me. I stashed my prize in my pocket as a familiar face reduced the displacement between our positions. Sitting next to me, she placed her legs over the edge of the deck beside mine as she leaned forward into the barred railing. I didn’t look at her, and a piece of paper was suddenly waving in my face. “Give it to me,” the paper read. 

I turned to Miaya, whose expression showed both sternness and worry. She held her hand out and clasped her fingers together to emphasize her demand. “0 clue what you’re talkin’ about,” I responded. 

She sighed before writing something else on the paper and shoving it back in my face. This new sentence read, “You smell like mangos and cinnamon.”

“It’s just an Euler’s-cig,” I defended as I produced the device from my pocket and reluctantly handed it to her. 

She scribbled something else on the paper before showing it to me. “They’re just as bad for you.” 

“You lose your handbook or some shit?” I retorted. I didn’t feel like arguing. 

“You said this was easier on you, right?” she wrote on the paper before handing it back to me. 

“You remembered?” I wondered. 

“Of course,” she wrote on the paper next, “mild hyperacusis, right?”

“I don’t give a shit what you call it. Hearin’ people talk just pisses me off,” I spat. 

“Is talking worse than other sounds?” was the next sentence she wrote.

“Well, duh, I can’t turn that 1 off, not without bloody lips involved,” I groaned. “Is this a fuckin’ therapy session?” 

“No! Sorry… force of habit >.>” she wrote next. 

“Habit is greater than point is greater than…” I muttered aloud. Miaya took the paper from me and held it in front of her face. She lowered it to reveal an expression that vaguely resembled the three symbols at the end of her sentence. “Oh, right, it’s 1 of those emojis or whatever.” 

We sat in silence for about 3/4 of a minute before she wrote something on the back of her paper. “Talk to me,” it said. 

“Huh? What happened to this not bein’ a therapy session?” I asked. 

She wrote something else on the paper. I leaned over her shoulder to catch a glimpse. I could see “I want to hear your voi” before she yanked the paper away from me, scribbled out what she had been writing, and wrote a new sentence: “It’s called a conversation.” 

“What’s left to say?” I wondered aloud. “There’s just 4 of us from the original class now: you, me, and the lovebirds. Losin’ 2 of ‘em last year sucked, but this… Fuck, man, this is just too much to calculate.” 

“Is that what you’re doing out here?” Miaya wrote under the scratched-out sentence. When I looked unsure of how to answer, she added, “Calculating?” 

“Somethin’ like that,” I replied as I scratched my undercut. 

“Me 2,” she wrote after her question. 

“2 of…” I stopped for a moment before realizing, “Oh, I get it.” I turned back to the sunrise and took a deep breath of the salty air. Somehow, it tasted even less natural than the e-cig. To my surprise, I felt Miaya’s weight leaning against my arm. “Huh?” I expressed. “What are you—” I stopped when I noticed a few tears rolling down her face. The sight made me a little uncomfortable at first, but after a moment, I moved my arm and wrapped it around her thin shoulders. “There, there…” I muttered. 

Miaya quickly wrapped her arms around my waist and clung tightly to my jacket. She didn’t cry many tears, but it felt like each of them contained salt greater than the sea. She held me even after she had finished crying. She clung tighter. I needed the pressure. Everything had been too soft recently, not enough physical pain and too much mental pain. 

We watched the water’s x-axis until I figured it was about time for the morning announcement. Then, I stood up, brushed myself off, and cracked the stiffness out of my neck and shoulders. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go murder Hachise.” Miaya jolted and nearly dropped her pencil into the water before catching it. She turned toward me, but I was already walking off. 

I walked downstairs and waited by the edge of the dormitory. Reiko walked out of her room and wished me a good morning. “Takamaru up?” I asked. 

“He has another migraine,” she replied. 

I clicked my tongue and nodded upward to show that I understood, and Reiko continued toward the restaurant. Before long, Hachise stepped out of her room—the room that was supposed to be my sensei’s—at the end of the hall. She yawned widely and stretched her arms over her head. She was wearing an oversized hoodie that she must have acquired recently. “Ooh, good morning, Noise! Were you waiting on li’l ol’ me?” 

“’Sup, bitch?” I drew my switchblade from my pocket and snapped it out as I started walking toward her. 

“Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the axis,” she chided with a smirk. “You might not be able to tell, but I’m as upset about what happened to Galey as you are. Anyway, that same poisoning trick won’t work twice, so there’s no need to—”

“You just keep on talkin’,” I interrupted as I continued my approach, “but all I hear is, ‘Kill me, Noise. I’m the mastermind of this game I made to get revenge on all my classmates for turning me into a social outlier.’” 

“Projecting a bit, aren’t we?” she retorted as she reached for her hoodie’s left pocket. 

 _That’s the arm that’s missing a hand. It’s not obvious with sleeves that long, but she’s reaching into her pocket to distract me. Meanwhile, her other hand has the real weapon._ I stepped to Hachise’s left as one of Haruki’s throwing knives fell from her hoodie’s right sleeve. _Please, like I haven’t seen that before…_

I caught Hachise’s right arm mid-thrust and swung my own knife at her. She ducked under my blade, pushed my arm aside with her left arm, and then dropped the throwing knife. I let go of her arm to move my hand out of the falling blade’s path, and she backed up before producing another aerosol can from under her hoodie. I kicked the can out of her hand before she could use it, and then I quickly backpedaled to avoid her attempt to stomp on my other foot. 

Another knife fell from her sleeve, and she lunged at me. I noticed her eyes dart toward my knife as I flicked it upward, and I head-butted her in the face as she moved to defend against it. The impact caused Hachise to fall back against her door and slide to the ground. I kicked the 1st throwing knife on the floor out of her reach and stepped on her hand to keep her from using the 2nd one. 

“You know beatin’ the shit outta cripples ain’t my style,” I admitted, “but cuttin’ bitches? Now that’s a pattern I can follow.” 

An earsplitting noise interrupted me, and I reflexively grabbed my ears. I fell on my ass as my vision went fuzzy. Some variable x moved in front of me, and when the value of my headache finally decreased, I could see that x = Miaya. She was holding a fuckin’ airhorn in one hand; that was probably the shit that’d made that god-awful sound. She was standin’ between me and Hachise, but for some reason, her back was facing me. It was like she was protecting me from that bitch instead of vice-versa. 

“Give me the hoodie,” Usami’s voice demanded from the e-Handbook in Miaya’s other hand. Hachise wiped the blood from her nose and relented silently. She took off the hoodie, unveiling all manner of makeshift weapons underneath: a sharpened spatula, more of Haruki’s knives, aerosol cans, pea-shooters, a water gun… 

Miaya helped Hachise to her feet, and the Ultimate Survivor scoffed as she marched past me. “Savage,” she muttered, and I nearly stabbed her in the fuckin’ leg, but Miaya’s hand gripped my shoulder. She had put away the airhorn and was typing 1-handedly into her handbook.

“Fine, take the damn thing,” I scoffed as I handed her my switchblade before she could finish typing. I had only just won it the other day. Miaya knelt beside me and used a handkerchief to wipe my forehead. I hadn’t noticed, but apparently, I was bleeding. My head must have hit that bitch’s braces or some shit. 

Like I thought, 0 people trusted anyone to make their breakfast for them. I just settled for instant noodles. Hachise was chipper as ever, but none of us were willing to entertain her. Ren was even quieter, which, before then, I hadn’t figured was possible. Yusuke was polite but brief. Reiko made food for herself and Takamaru and then left for his room. Miaya offered to make me something when she saw what I was eating, but I turned her down. 

“Well,” I said to the quiet room, “guess I’d better go check out the new area ‘fore Hachise finds some other shit to kill us with.” 

“Quite,” Yusuke agreed before standing up. 

“Fine, you all get first dibs on the new stuff,” Hachise pouted. 

Ren and Yusuke left the restaurant, and Miaya and I followed shortly after. I took a detour, however, by my dorm room to grab the sledgehammer I’d taken from the Ultimate Moral Compass's lab the other day. I'd found the thing alongside some tools while checking the lab out at Gale's suggestion. After giving it a few practice swings to test its weight, I stopped by the infirmary on my way downstairs. “Bulletproof, eh?” I wondered to myself as I stared at the cabinet containing the remaining poisons. I could immediately tell 0 of the bottles were missing compared to yesterday. “Let’s find out.” 

Like I suspected, “bulletproof” did not mean “Noise-proof.” 

Despite the resistance of the cabinet, those fuckin’ poisons eventually went down my toilet, where the shit belonged. After that, I went back downstairs to the 4th floor. I knocked on the door to the arcade for good luck as I passed before descending the newly-opened stairway to the 5th floor. 

The 5th floor was shaped like the letter _H_ : 2 parallel hallways connected at their midway points by a 3rd perpendicular hallway. The stairs ended at 1 of the floor’s corners, and I followed that hallway in a straight line to its opposite end. At the end, I found a metal door with a symbol that looked like an atom on it. Rather, it was a shape that resembled a clump of small circles, surrounded by the perimeters of 3 ellipses, each of which was connected to an even smaller circle. 

Past the door, I found an Ultimate Research Lab unlike any other. This was the first 1 that I thought actually deserved to be called a “Laboratory.” Computers, telescopes, microscopes, beakers, solutions, textbooks, and atomic, astronomic, and anatomic models—this place had everything. Miaya was typing away at 1 of the computers while Hachise—so much for “1st dibs”—sighed at the beakers. 

“Careful,” Hachise teased me when she noticed I had entered, “if you start a fight here, it could cause a chain reaction.” 

“Fuck yourself,” I responded callously as I approached Miaya to see what she was doing. 

“Kagami’s lab is no joke,” Hachise marveled halfway to herself. “Well, ze was the Ultimate Physicist. I guess that’s not just classical physics: biophysics, chemical physics, geophysics, astrophysics… The gang’s all here!” 

“Kagami had a pretty solid understanding of quantum physics and nuclear physics as well,” Usami mentioned from Miaya’s handbook as the Ultimate Therapist turned around in her chair to face me, “but there’s no equipment related to those fields here.” 

“I guess that’s not too surprising,” I admitted. “Even Monokuma couldn’t fit a fuckin’ particle accelerator on a luxury cruise.” 

“He wouldn’t need the bombs planted throughout the ship if he had a nuclear reactor aboard,” Hachise cackled to herself. 

“Anythin’ useful on the computers?” I asked Miaya. 

“No, the computer in the Ultimate Forensic Criminalist's lab is pretty versatile, but these are designed just to interpret data from the equipment in this lab. There are restrictions preventing them from doing anything else,” Usami explained. 

“Can’t you, like, hack it or some shit?” I asked. 

“Sorry, Noise, I’m no Chihiro,” Usami admitted on Miaya’s behalf. “I’m a decent programmer, sure, but I’m out of my element here. The entire operating system is like nothing I’ve ever seen before.” 

“Ain’t like I can help out either,” I sympathized. 

“I have a few more things I want to check,” Usami told me. “You go ahead and keep exploring, and don’t worry; I’ll keep an eye on Hachise.” 

“If you say so,” I groaned. 

I found the next door at the center of the perpendicular hallway in the middle of the floor. Without a symbol, I figured this one probably wasn’t an Ultimate Research Lab. My theory was proven when I entered to find a miniature dance club. A cerulean lounge decorated the perimeter of the room, at the center of which was an elevated dance floor, complete with an overhead disco ball. Speakers in the walls and ceiling resonated with a jazzy rhythm. 

I walked in right as Ren and Yusuke completed some complicated dance routine. The two high-5'd as they nailed the ending, and the song faded. Then they turned to me. “Ah, Noise, would you care to try your hand?” Yusuke offered. 

“How about no,” I retorted, “not to diss your moves or anythin’, but this ain’t exactly my style.” 

“Fair enough,” Ren conceded as he caught his breath. 

“We found it helpful to work out some of our anxieties,” Yusuke confided, “though I am deeply saddened that Ann, Gale, and Hifumi could not share this place with us.” 

“Charlotte would’ve been hype as shit in here,” I sighed. “Well, whatever, the rest of us can dance hard enough for all of ‘em if we ever get outta here.” 

“Indeed,” Yusuke agreed. 

“It makes me wonder why the hell Monokuma put places like this in here. Maybe he’s just tryin’ to let us have fun so we decrease even more when shit hits the fan,” I pondered. 

“You remember Kudo-sensei’s letter, right?” Ren asked. 

“Yeah,” I replied as I recalled his showing me, “what about it?” 

“Ah, yes,” Yusuke chimed in, “he and I believe that perhaps Monokuma did not design this vessel, but rather he modified it to suit his purposes.” 

“So, somebody else built it 1st?” I followed along. “I guess that’d make sense considering Kudo-sensei’s letter. If it weren’t for the bombs and shit, this place could definitely foster our talents at sea while he worked on the overseas branch of Hope’s Peak.” 

“If Monokuma is not the original architect of this vessel, our chances of finding a method by which to wrest control of it from him would improve dramatically,” Yusuke deduced. 

“Yeah, since he’s makin’ shit up as he goes, he must’ve missed somethin’,” I agreed. “We just gotta find it and exploit the hell out of it.” 

“Well, we are unlikely to find anything on an empty stomach. Would you care to join us for lunch?” Yusuke invited. 

“Pass,” I retorted, “I still got shit to do.” 

I split up with the transfer students and went to the other parallel hallway. At 1 of that hallway’s ends, I found a door with the overhead silhouette of an airplane on it. _Oh, this should be good._

I was right. I was more than right. The Ultimate Pilot's lab was massive. A set of metal stairs descended from the door to a literal hangar with a full-sized runway that must’ve been the length of the ship. At the end of the runway was a huge sliding door that I assumed led to the outside of the boat. At the other end was a plane—an older model with a cockpit sized for 1. Takamaru was cackling like a madman on top of the damn thing. “This is the greatest mistake Monokuma could have ever made!” 

“Darling, don’t get ahead of yourself,” Reiko warned from beside the aircraft. “The rules still prevent us from leaving the ship.” 

“What’s he gonna do?” Takamaru taunted. “Shoot me down? I’d like to see him try!” 

“The plane could be rigged,” Reiko speculated. 

“That’s what the inspection’s for!” Takamaru rebutted. “She’ll be right as plane in no time! Then I will take my true place amidst the heavens while you plebeians grovel here in mud!” 

“He’s not gonna come down for a while, is he?” I speculated as I descended the metal stairs and approached Reiko. 

“He’s going to be like this for at least a day or two,” she sighed. 

“That thing even work?” I wondered. 

“He doesn’t know,” Reiko informed me. “He hasn’t come down long enough to actually check.” 

“My condolences on gettin’ dumped for a bucket of bolts,” I offered. 

“It wouldn’t be the first time,” she huffed. 

“Noise!” Takamaru called down to me. “What’s the slope of my dick when I’m fucking gravity in the ass from the inside of my newest angel?” 

“I’d be amazed if you could get your head out of your ass long enough to check!” I retaliated. 

“Noise, I’m sure your comeback was great,” Takamaru replied, “but I couldn’t hear it from up here in the realm of the chosen and civilized.” 

“You’re gonna come down hard when you realize Monokuma’s not dumb enough to give us a bird with unclipped wings!” I retorted. 

“What’s that?” Takamaru called. “I’m sorry. I don’t speak Bottom Feeder.” 

“You’re wasting your time,” Reiko sighed. 

“What are you talkin’ about? This shit’s hilarious,” I chuckled back. “Just try not to let him fly straight into the goddamn ocean before he checks if the thing’s got gas.” 

“I’ll do my best,” Reiko assured me. 

Leaving Takamaru to his high, I exited the Ultimate Pilot's lab and walked to the last corner of the 5th floor. At the end was a humble door decorated with a familiar symbol: f(x). A toothy smile crept onto my face. _It’s about goddamn time._

The inside was everything I had hoped for and more. Layers of adjustable chalkboards covered every wall. Texts on every flavor of mathematics were stored on small, rolling shelves that could be easily moved throughout the room. Pencils, paper, calculators, rulers, protractors, even a projector—all the essentials were here. This was it. It was my time to shine. 

I spent the rest of the day manic and shirtless. I always hated memorizing shit, so my tats served as quick reference for all the need-to-knows. The complex shit was in the books, and the rest I could recalculate by hand as needed in no time. I took measurements all over the fucking boat. Every hall, every lab, every room I could enter—I chewed up and spat out every last decimal. With no Monokuma-ass barricade on the 5th floor, this was it. I finally had the whole equation. 

I took measurements of the outside of the ship from the deck. I checked my ankle, where I’d written the number of times I’d tapped my foot on the elevator down to the trial grounds. I factored in the ship’s buoyancy based on some references in the Ultimate Physicist's lab. I banged my head on the wall ‘til I remembered the shit Kudo-sensei’d taught me about nautical architecture. I screamed bloody murder whenever I got stuck ‘til eventually I was unstuck. I broke down every mental barrier by force. 

Somebody must’ve come in at some point cuz I found some cola and a bento box in my lab after a while. I didn’t give a shit who it was, but the food and drink were both sealed when I found ‘em, so it’s not like they were poisoned. Finally, I found what I was looking for. Monokuma’s fuckin’ announcement played pretty soon after that, so I guessed I’d have to tell everybody in the morning. 

I put my shirt and jacket back on and went upstairs. When I passed the laundry room on my way to my room, however, I heard something. There were voices. Peeking in through the cracked door, I saw Ren, Yusuke, Reiko, and Takamaru inside. One of the machines was running while they talked. 

“No, it vanished right after we got back,” Reiko said. “It’s just gone.” 

“That sounds like what happened to me,” Takamaru agreed. 

“Hmm, then it would seem Gale’s was the only one that persisted past his first visit,” Yusuke observed. 

Something made some kinda meowling noise in Ren’s bag, and the guy nodded like he was agreein’ with the damn thing. 

“We should query the others tomorrow,” Yusuke suggested. “Morgana cannot handle this alone, and time is of the essence.” 

“App or not, I’ll help however I can,” Reiko assured them. “Takamaru and I are no thieves, but you can count on us.” 

 

I am **thou** , thou art I…

Thou hast acquired a **new** vow.

 

It shall **become** the wings of rebellion

that **breaketh** thy chains of captivity.

 

With the rebirth of the Lovers Persona,

I have obtained the winds of **blessing** that

shall lead to freedom and **new** power…

 

 _Am I hearin’ shit?_ I got bored of eavesdropping and crashed in my room. I opened my e-Handbook and quintuple-checked the floor plan on its map to make sure everythin’ I’d put together added up. I tried to open the Report Cards, but for some reason, the app just crashed. 

Then I saw a new app on my handbook. Its logo was some red-ass eye with a pentagram for a pupil. _The fuck is this?_ I clicked the app, but it just full-screened a wallpaper with the same weird-ass logo. _Whatever_. I closed the app and went to the restroom to brush my teeth and change. 

 _I wonder what the lovebirds were talkin’ with the transfers about. I didn’t realize they were tight._ I flopped down onto my bed. _Well, they said they’d ‘query’ us tomorrow, so I guess I’ll find out then._

“Good morning, everyone! It is now 7 a.m., and nighttime is officially over. Time to rise and shine! Get ready to greet another beee-yutiful day!” I threw my bedside lamp at the monitor. I was usually up an at ’em before the goddamn announcement, but I guess I went too hard yesterday. I was out of practice. 

After gettin’ dressed and ready, I joined everyone in the restaurant. Another cup of instant noodles stopped my stomach from growling. I waited around for the transfers or lovebirds to say whatever they were gonna ask us about, but they just made small talk about the new labs. When I guessed they weren’t gonna pipe up after all, I decided to move in. “Guys, I was crunchin’ some numbers yesterday.” 

“We noticed,” Reiko observed. 

“What exactly were you calculating?” Yusuke inquired. “I tried to ask, but you seemed to not even realize I was there.” 

“I was takin’ measurements, and I figured out somethin’ about this ship we’re on, somethin’ big,” I shared. 

“What did you find, Noise?” Usami asked for Miaya. 

“There’s no engine room,” I revealed. 

“What?” Takamaru asked. “But the boat’s moving, right? We’d have noticed if we were just dead in the water, right?” 

“Yeah, I definitely would have noticed,” Hachise agreed. 

“Of course we’re movin’,” I agreed, “but the boat’s got no goddamn engine. I checked all the fuckin’ books in Kagami’s lab for reference, and there’s no room big enough to accommodate for anythin’ that could move a bitch of this size.” 

“What about the places we haven’t gone?” Takamaru asked. “There’s still that elevator in Shiro’s lab.” 

“I checked. I thought about that labyrinth at the bottom of the boat where we 1st woke up too,” I shared. “Even if we ain’t got a way back there, it’s still down there, but there’s no room there either. I remember the layout of that whole maze.” 

“You did run off to go exploring when I said not to,” Reiko sighed. 

“Look, you gotta take my word on this 1!” I insisted. “I mapped everything I could: the labyrinth, the Ultimate Pilot's lab, the distance to the trial ground, everything. Based on the dimensions on the outside of the ship, geometrically speaking, there ain’t room for an engine.” 

“Hmm, Monokuma must be using some experimental new tech,” Hachise mused to herself. 

“That does make the possibility of commandeering the engine as a way to wrest control of the ship somewhat problematic…” Yusuke admitted. 

“Thank you, Noise,” Usami said, “we may not be sure what to do with this information right now, but I’m sure it’ll come in handy as we plan our escape.” 

 “I’m gonna go back to the Ultimate Physicist's lab,” Hachise declared with a bright smile. “I’d like to make certain that this isn’t some ghost ship.” 

After the Ultimate Survivor pranced out of the room, Yusuke spoke up. “Before you leave, there is something we would like to ask the two of you.” 

Miaya and I turned toward the Ultimate Artist. I guessed the lovebirds and transfers were waitin’ on Hachise to leave before they piped up. “What’s up?” I asked. 

“Do either of you have a weird app on your handbook?” Takamaru asked vaguely. 

Reiko produced a folded paper from her cleavage and showed us a drawing of a symbol. “It looks like this,” she illustrated. I recognized it immediately. 

“Oh, you mean this thing?” I asked as I retrieved my handbook from my pocket, but when I looked, the creepy eyeball from last night was gone. “Huh? What the fuck? Shit was here last night, I swear.” 

Miaya looked over my shoulder as I scrolled angrily back and forth. She shook her head and typed into her own handbook. “I haven’t seen it,” Usami said. 

The group looked disappointed. “Well, what is it?” I asked. 

“It’s hard to explain, but it’s related to how the Phantom Thieves change people’s hearts,” Reiko explained. “It could be our best weapon against Monokuma, and it might be able to help us deal with Hachise.” 

“If the app reappears on your handbook, please let us know immediately,” Yusuke requested. 

“And don’t mention it to Hachise,” Takamaru added. “She already tried to kill Ren, so the less she knows about the Phantom Thieves, the better.” 

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Miaya asked vicariously through Usami. “She tried to kill him because she’s scared that she’ll be brainwashed. Maybe if you just explain how it works…” 

“Yeah, seems like these 2 know what the fuck is up,” I complained as I motioned to the lovebirds. “Maybe it’s time to come clean.” 

“It is not simply that we do not wish to disclose our methods,” Yusuke admitted. 

“It’s that we can’t,” Ren finished. 

“Whatever, have it your way then,” I huffed before standing up. I ignored whatever they said after that and went to Emiko’s lab. I had some Monocoins I’d won at the arcade the other day, and I figured I might win another weapon I could keep on me in case Hachise got any ideas. I won a makeup kit with a tutorial booklet, a pair of aviation goggles, and an external hard drive. _The fuck am I s’posed to do with this shit?_

I guessed Reiko might like the makeup for her thespian stuff, or maybe if she wanted to doll herself up for Takamaru or some shit. I checked the map and saw she was in the kitchen, so I went there. “Hey, Noise,” she greeted me without looking away from her work over the countertop. She seemed to be making some kind of dessert. 

“You want some makeup?” I asked as I wiggled the kit over my head. 

“Sure, just leave it over there,” she instructed as she nodded toward a table. 

I set the kit down and then gave her a quizzical look. “I never took you for the domestic type of bitch,” I said. 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked. 

“Well, you got the whole independent woman thing goin’ on, and it’s the 21st Century and all that,” I clarified. 

“It’s pineapple upside-down cake, Takamaru’s favorite,” she explained. “I wanted to make it myself. He really stuck up for me in the last trial.”

“Look, Reiko, about that,” I started, “I wanted to say sorry.” 

“For what?” 

“For what I said,” I answered, “for sayin’ you killed Haruki, I was just pissed off, and I jumped to conclusions. That ain’t like me. It won’t happen again.”

“An apology, really?” she chuckled. “Who are you, and what have you done with Noise?” 

“C’mon, don’t make me regret sayin’ it,” I groaned. “I know we weren’t really friends or nothin’ before all this, but there ain’t many of us left, so I just…” 

“Don’t mention it,” she replied after I trailed off. “For a while, I thought I was the killer too, or maybe I knew I wasn’t, and I just wanted people to vote for me. If they did, we’d all be dead, and this whole thing would be over.” 

“I get wantin’ it to end, but…” 

“I just hate feeling like we’re all actors in Monokuma’s production,” she vented as she chopped a pineapple a little harder with a sharpened spoon. “We just keep dancing to his tune, stepping to his beat.” 

“If you don’t wanna fall in line, don’t die,” I chastised. 

“Huh?” 

“That’s what he wants, ain’t it? For us to kill each other, I mean,” I explained. “Then don’t. It’s that simple.” 

“You’d certainly think so,” she huffed. 

“Well, for what it’s worth,” I confided, “I think you made the right choice, stickin’ up for yourself like that. I know I’m glad you did. My dumb ass would have gotten us killed otherwise.” 

“You would have figured it out before it came to that,” Reiko assured me. “You’re the only one who realized the truth about Gale.” 

“Not to invert your compliment, but I ain’t exactly feelin’ peachy about that shit,” I bit. 

“Right, sorry,” she apologized. 

“It’s fine,” I sighed. “We’ll call it even then.” 

“You know, I’ve noticed what you’ve been eating,” Reiko acknowledged. “I can show you a thing or two if you’d like.” 

“I’m fine, thanks,” I retorted. 

“Then give me a hand,” Reiko requested. “I can use your help with proportions and measurements.” 

“Fine, whatever,” I conceded. I spent the rest of the morning helping Reiko make Takamaru’s cake. She kept trivializing my talent by asking for exact measurements and then just tossing in estimates anyway. I couldn’t actually remember how she cooked any of the shit, but that wasn’t as interesting, so I didn’t care. 

I had some more noodles for lunch and then checked my handbook again. On the map, I saw Hachise was alone with Miaya in the Ultimate Forensic Criminalist's lab. I started to worry somethin’ might be up, so I checked it out. “Thanks for having today’s session in here,” I could barely hear Usami’s voice say through the door to the lab. 

“It’s no problem,” Hachise proclaimed as she opened the door to leave. In the next moment, I was gripping her wrist as she held a fork a few centimeters from my throat. 

“You’re 0.4 seconds slower than yesterday,” I chastised through clenched teeth. 

“Your grip seems weaker,” she taunted back through a braced smile. “Maybe it’s malnourishment from all that junk food.” 

“Stop it, you two!” Usami’s voice shouted from across the lab. After a moment, Hachise dropped her fork, and I slowly let her go. Then, she stepped past me and walked toward the stairs down. I closed the door behind me as I entered. “Could you not antagonize my patient?” Usami asked as Miaya’s eyes narrowed. 

“That bitch tried to stab me!” I protested. 

Miaya started to type something in her handbook. Then she put the device down and instead wrote something on a piece of paper. “You attacked her yesterday,” was written on the paper when she held it up. 

“She murdered Gale! Of course I—fuckin’—whatever!” I groaned. “Here I was thinkin’ you might be in trouble with that bitch breathin’ down your neck.” 

“The Phantom Thieves can’t change her <3.” She showed me the paper and then scribbled something out. “<3” had been changed to “heart.” 

“So you’re givin’ it a shot?” I asked. “Does therapy even work on someone like that?” 

“It takes time,” Miaya wrote on the paper next as I sat on the desk next to her so I could see what she was writing more easily. “She’s still not being entirely honest with me, but she told the truth about giving her only electromagnetic detonator to Reiko. She’s already had to come to grips with the fact that she might be the only one who survives this, so she won’t hesitate to kill if she feels endangered. I need to make her realize that we’re all on her side.” 

“She makes it pretty fuckin’ hard to be on her side when she murders—”

Miaya held her hand over my mouth. “I know,” she wrote with her free hand. “What she did is unforgivable, but this is all I can do. This is my talent, Noise. I don’t know how else to use it to help us. I don’t want to lose anyone else.” 

I slowly moved her hand off my mouth and sighed. “I get it. You’re fightin’, too, in your own way, but I can’t fight that way. I gotta fight my way.” 

“Then you’ll have to fight me,” Miaya wrote on the paper. I wasn’t sure how to respond, so she kept writing after a long pause. “If anyone wants to hurt anyone else on this ship, they’ll have to hurt me first.” 

I involuntarily let out a chuckle. 

“WHAT?” she wrote on the paper next. “U WANNA GO?” 

“You can’t be serious,” I snickered. “I ain’t gonna fight a bitch with 0 beef. You can’t even mouth off to me.” 

“I’M SERIOUS!” she wrote before standing up from the desk and raising her fists at me. 

I faked a yawn while idly swatting away a few light punches from the tiny therapist. I ducked under another punch while standing up from the desk. Then I swept my foot under her legs and knocked Miaya off her feet. Before she hit the ground, however, I caught her hand. I held her aloft—nearly horizontal at about a 15° angle with the floor—before pulling her to her feet. She lowered her head and, without letting go of my hand, tapped her fist against my chest with her other hand. “So much for—”

I was interrupted when something soft touched my mouth. I didn’t process it at 1st, but after about a second, I realized it was Miaya’s lips. Suddenly, I felt dizzy, and I froze up. Almost as soon as I realized what was happening, she pulled away. I fell on my ass. My eyes must’ve looked like a goddamn deer in headlights. Miaya giggled and wrote something on her paper before showing it to me: 

“I win. ^_^” 

“That doesn’t count!” I spat back as I wiped my mouth and got to my feet. Miaya just giggled again, so I shoved my hands in my pockets and moved toward the door. “Whatever, you better not go braggin’ to anybody or anythin'.” The Ultimate Therapist waved goodbye and sat back down in front of the computer. 

Feeling something in my pocket reminded me of my winnings that morning, so I produced the hard drive I’d gotten from the MonoMono Machine, and I tossed it to her. The Ultimate Therapist gave me a curious look after catching the device. “I got no use for it,” I retorted. “You’re the 1 who’s always on the computer.” Miaya smiled at me genuinely, and I stormed through the door. Before I closed it behind me, I stopped for a moment. “Hey, you can’t fight for shit, so if anyone does try to hurt you to get to someone else, they’ll have to get past me 1st.” 

I didn’t wait for her reply before heading to the arcade. I spent the rest of the day on some cheesy JRPG spinoff. I had a hard time focusing after that stunt she’d pulled. I played until I heard the nighttime announcement, and my head still wasn’t clear. With a groan, I trudged back up to the deck of the ship. 

The air was a little colder tonight. A cigarette would have warmed me up. “They’ll kill your brain cells,” Kudo-sensei had told me. “Your body’s tough, but your mind’s tougher. It’s your greatest weapon. You wouldn’t leave your best knife out to rust, would you?” 

“Fat talk comin’ from a guy who rushed in without thinkin’ and got murdered,” I murmured to myself as I gripped my knees by the edge of the boat. I repeated the scene of his death over and over in my head. I fixated on every angle, every edge, every measurement… 

“You have incredible attention to detail,” Hifumi had said. “You should spend more time thinking about what your opponent will do instead of only looking at your side.” 

“Yeah, and even you didn’t think that your enemy had rigged your fuckin’ door,” I muttered. 

“People won’t always see the best in you, but you can’t be as shortsighted as they are,” Shiro had suggested. “They say strangers are just friends you haven’t met yet; I think the same can be said of one’s enemies.” 

“And then you tried to stab Emiko after tricking her with a fake love letter,” I sighed. “All these dead people are really pissin’ me off…” 

“Whenever I get mad at someone, I go for a workout!” Charlotte had told me. “That way, the people who tried to hurt me are actually helping me, and I’m not hurting anyone either.” 

I punched the railing hard enough to bruise my fingers. That was better. Now the pain was physical. That was easier to deal with. Familiar footsteps approached me from behind. “You again?” I asked Miaya as she sat next to me. 

“It’s cold,” she wrote on a piece of paper. 

“Then go back inside,” I bit. 

“But you’ll still be cold,” she wrote next. 

“Nobody asked you!” I snapped. 

Miaya didn’t flinch or retaliate. She just stared blankly at the sea before writing on her paper again, “I’m glad you’re not smoking up here.” 

“Don’t remind me,” I huffed. 

“Noise, can you make me a promise?” she wrote on the paper. 

“Huh? The hell is this comin’ from?” I asked. 

“I think I’m making real progress with Hachise. I’m going to try to stop her from hurting anyone else, no matter what it takes, but if something happens, and I get hurt—”

“I’ll fuckin’ kill her,” I bit before Miaya could finish writing. 

“No!” she wrote. “If Hachise kills me, she’ll be the blackened, but if you kill her after that, you’ll be the blackened, and then you’ll be executed!” 

“Why would you care? You’d be dead!” I argued. 

“I care NOW!” she scribbled before shoving the paper into my face. 

“Fine, fine, I get it,” I relented. “If you really don’t want me to kill her, don’t fuckin’ die.” 

“Thank you,” she wrote. We sat in silence for a while again before she wrote something else: “For the record, I know my win didn’t count earlier.” 

“Whatever,” I replied as I flipped her off while turning back to the sea, “you got some nerve pullin’ shit like that and then talkin’ about dyin’. It ain’t like you’re my type, but I’m still pissed about…” 

“You’re right,” she wrote. “That was selfish of me.” 

“You’re gonna start agreein’ with me now too?” I asked. “Swear to God, 1st Kari, and now this shit.” 

“It’s not like I’m planning to die!” Miaya wrote with a glare on her face. 

“Could’ve fooled me,” I yawned. “Well, if you do decide to jump stupid and get yourself killed, can you tell Hifumi somethin’ for me?” Miaya looked to her paper and started to write, but I put my hand below her chin and lifted her face back to mine. I leaned in and kissed her on the lips. I started to pull away, but she put her hands on my head and moved her face forward to keep our lips locked. I turned my head, and she nibbled on my lower lip. She moved away after a long moment. “Feel free to take your time deliverin’ that message,” I sighed before standing up. Miaya walked with me silently back to the dormitory, and we each returned to our separate rooms. 

In my own room, I stared at my small chalkboard, which still contained the specifics of Plan Q of Project: Asmodeus Eater. “You know, lookin’ at it again, this 1 kinda sucks,” I noticed. “I thought he suggested it cuz it was so bad that she wouldn’t be prepared for it, but I wonder if he just pretended to listen and then picked Q at random. That does sound like the kinda shit he’d do.” 

I beat the morning announcement to the punch the next day. In the shower, I found myself thinking about the ship’s lack of engine. Something was wrong with this boat, something more than we knew. On top of that, there was all the shit Gale had told me. I thought again about what Lucille might have meant by “G-A,” but I quit wasting my time when I realized I still had no fuckin’ clue. 

 _Whatever, the dead are dead. Why should I give a shit what they thought? If they were so smart, why’d they up and die like that?_ I finished getting ready and went to the restaurant. Monokuma’s morning announcement played, and everybody was in the restaurant for breakfast before long. 

Hachise sat at a table by herself. I sat alone too when I saw the transfers and lovebirds were makin’ nice at their own table. Miaya showed up soon after that, however, and she sat with me. “Aww, Mia, you don’t wanna come sit with me?” Hachise whined from her own table. 

“You should come sit with us, Hachise,” Usami said on Miaya’s behalf as the Ultimate Therapist offered a smile. I gave Hachise a look that told her otherwise, and she stayed put, but my face returned to normal when Miaya glanced back at me. 

“Don’t gimme that look,” I groaned as her eyes narrowed. 

“Good morning, everyone!” Monokuma’s annoying-ass voice shouted as the bifurcated bear fell from the ceiling onto an unused table. “No need to _bear_ your fangs!” he said as I jolted to my feet and punched my table. “Things are getting boring again, so I’m here to offer your next motive, but I hate to be the _bear_ er of bad news, so I’ve come up with a motive that I think you’re all going to enjoy.” 

“Well, then, spit it out,” Takamaru demanded. 

“Today’s motive is an **open campus**!” Monokuma announced. “That’s right! I’m getting rid of the first rule! Take a look for yourself!” 

I felt a buzz in my handbook, so I looked at the device and opened the rules: 

  1. ~~Students may reside only within the _S.S. Titanokuma-A_. Leaving the vessel is an unacceptable use of time.~~
  2. "Nighttime" is from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Some areas are off-limits at night, so please exercise caution.
  3. Sleeping anywhere other than the dormitory (or infirmary) will be seen as sleeping in class and punished accordingly.
  4. With minimal restrictions, you are free to explore the _S.S. Titanokuma-A_ at your discretion.
  5. Violence against headmaster Monokuma is strictly prohibited, as is destruction of surveillance cameras.
  6. Swimming in the ocean is not allowed. Littering by throwing objects into the ocean is also prohibited. 
  7. Anyone who kills a fellow student and becomes "blackened" will graduate, unless they are discovered.
  8. Additional regulations may be added if necessary.
  9. Lending your e-Handbook to another student is strictly prohibited.
  10. A body discovery announcement will occur when three or more students discover a body.
  11. Once a murder takes place, a class trial will begin shortly thereafter. Participation is mandatory for all surviving students.
  12. If the guilty party is exposed during the class trial, they alone will be executed.
  13. If the guilty party is not exposed, they alone will graduate, and all remaining students will be executed.
  14. Monokuma will never directly participate in a murder.
  15. The guilty party may only kill a maximum of two people during any single "killing game." This rule does not apply to the “attacker” as long as the “forbidden actions” are in place. 
  16. Swimming is prohibited in the pool during nighttime. Touching the water during nighttime is also against the school rules.
  17. Attempting to break into locked rooms is strictly prohibited.
  18. If two different murders by two different murderers occur at the same time, only the one whose victim was found first will be the blackened.



“See and believe, my beloved students! You are now free to leave the _S.S. Titanokuma-A_ whenever you like!” Monokuma declared a little too happily. “Puhuhu, that is, assuming you find a way out…” Monokuma vanished beneath the table on which he stood. 

“I fail to see how this would encourage another murder,” Yusuke mused. 

“I mean,” Reiko started, “he can say we can leave, but it’s not like there are lifeboats, and we don’t even really know where we are.” 

“Honey, are you forgetting I have a plane?” Takamaru asked. 

“Aww, are you leaving us behind, Takamaru?” Hachise teased. 

“Tempting,” Takamaru admitted half-sarcastically, “but there isn’t enough fuel in her to get anywhere if we’re more than a couple hundred kilometers out to sea.” 

“But there is fuel?” I asked. 

“Oh yeah,” Takamaru confirmed, “my baby’s more than airworthy.” 

“Then we can use it for reconnaissance,” Usami suggested on Miaya’s behalf. 

“Hell yeah, I got no clue where we are from down here, but if you put me in the sky, I could almost definitely figure out where we are,” Takamaru bragged. 

“It is possible you could locate land,” Yusuke speculated, “which would allow us to concoct a plan of escape.” 

“If we use tools in Kagami’s lab to calculate the speed of the boat,” I suggested, “I can plot an ideal route _R_ such that the path denoted by _R_ uses the least amount of fuel.” 

 “Let’s do it!” Usami cheered. “If we work together, there’s nothing we can’t do!” 

For once, we had a plan of attack. Takamaru went back to the Ultimate Pilot's lab to repeat his inspection of his “angel.” Ren and Yusuke helped Reiko construct a parachute from materials in the Ultimate Thespian's lab and Ultimate Circus Performer's lab since, apparently, the Ultimate Pilot's lab didn’t come with 1. Hachise used equipment from the Ultimate Physicist's lab to measure the speed of the boat, the air pressure, possible weather patterns, and other variables that could affect the trip. Miaya was hacking away at something on the computer in the Ultimate Forensic Criminalist's lab. 

I used Hachise’s measurements and Takamaru’s reports to plot an ideal route that would allow maximum visibility based on average wind speeds, the velocity of the boat, fuel consumption, and other factors. While I was ticking away at my blackboards in the Ultimate Mathematician's lab, Hachise entered. I had largely ignored her occasional visits to report her findings, but this time, a familiar sound got my attention as she pulled a switchblade from her pocket. “Is now really the time?” I asked. 

Hachise held the knife by the blade and handed it to me. “I pickpocketed this off Mia,” she shared. “It’s a peace offering.” 

Cautiously, I took the knife from her. I admit the thought crossed my mind to try to stab her, but I flicked the blade back inward and pocketed it instead. “You want me to thank you or some shit?” I chided. “The value _k_ of some dumb-ass knife is such that _k_ < 2 _l_ where _l_ is the life of my classmate.” 

“Think what you want, but I didn’t try to get Galey killed,” Hachise scoffed. “Haruki was a problem; Ren still is.” 

“That quiet-ass 4-eyes ain’t done shit since he got here,” I rebutted. 

“Maybe that’s just what he wants you to think,” Hachise chuckled. “Don’t forget he’s capable of brainwashing. It’s not just me I’m worried about. He’s had the other transfer students under his thumb from the beginning, and you’ve noticed how Reiko and Takamaru have started acting around him, right?” 

“What?” I bit back. “They get a little chummy, and you start cryin’, ‘Brainwashed!’ like a goddamn Puritan in Salem?” 

“I don’t know if they are, but we can’t say for certain that they aren’t, right?” Hachise argued. “Think about it. Takamaru’s talent makes him an obvious target in this situation, and Reiko would notice if he was acting weird unless she was brainwashed too.” 

“Say what you want, but at the end of the day, you’re a murderer, and he’s not,” I scoffed. 

“Are you sure about that?” she asked. 

“Don’t get smart with me!” I snapped. “You murdered someone on the other boat to get here, and you got Haruki and Gale killed!” 

“Ren isn’t innocent either,” Hachise replied. “Have you heard of Kunikazu Okumura, president of Okumura Foods? You may not have seen, but he was killed by the Phantom Thieves on live television. Surely, you remember Akechi-senpai, your senior at Hope’s Peak? He was on the Phantom Thieves’ trail until he suddenly vanished. Officially, he was declared missing, but anyone with good sense can figure out what happened.” 

“Why don’t you shut up before I make you regret givin’ me back this knife?” I growled. 

“Then there’s my Galey,” Hachise continued despite my threat. “Don’t you think it’s weird that Ren didn’t take the breakfast he made to Haruki himself? I’m starting to think he noticed that I poisoned it, but instead of calling me out or throwing it away, he gave it to Galey to deliver on his behalf.” 

“Your voice is really startin’ to piss me off!” I shouted. “Get the fuck out of my lab!” 

“Have it your way,” Hachise sighed before using her inhaler. “I’ll give you time to think on it.” 

I returned to my work with a rage and furiously snapped through a whole-ass box of chalks. Realizing I was burning through the chalk at an unsustainable rate, I took a break for lunch and tried to cool my head. I was still fuming by the time I finished eating, so I went to the arcade to blow off steam there. As I made my way to the _Metalcurse_ machine, I saw Takamaru finishing up a game on a nearby flight simulator. 

The simulator was incredibly thorough: It featured a life-sized cockpit and controls quite similar to the ones I’d caught a glimpse of in the plane in Takamaru’s lab. Takamaru cheered as he landed the virtual plane successfully, and then he stood up and approached me. “Hey, Noise, you got any more Monocoins? I just used my last one.” 

“I’m surprised to see you out of your lab,” I chuckled. 

“Inspection didn’t take long,” Takamaru shared. “Angela’s practically flawless.” 

“You named it?” I asked. 

“I named _her_ ,” Takamaru corrected. 

“Then you’re just practicing for the flight?” I guessed. 

“Yeah, Miaya’s making some adjustments,” Takamaru explained, “but we’re gonna take off after dinner if you can have the route by then. Weather’s clear again today, but there’s no telling if it’ll stay that way, so it’s best not to dilly-dally.” 

“I’ll have it by then,” I assured him, “and I do have some coins you can use.” I passed Takamaru a handful of Monocoins I’d won in the arcade, and he took them back to the flight sim. 

“Hey, this game’s got a second cockpit,” Takamaru told me. “If you’ve got time, wanna go a few rounds as my wingman?” 

“Why not?” I thought aloud. I’d never played a flight sim before, but Takamaru showed me the ropes. He was a better pilot than a teacher, but I caught on after a game or 2. Shooting down winged Monokumas in virtual dogfights was even more cathartic than I’d hoped. 

“Ah, shit!” Takamaru exclaimed after a round. 

“What’re you talkin’ about?” I wondered with a snicker. “We smoked ‘em!”

“No, I just realized I don’t have any actual goggles or visors,” Takamaru said. “You’d think the fuckin’ Ultimate Pilot's lab would’ve come with some, but I guess I can ask Reiko to make a pair.” 

“Would these work?” I asked as I retrieved the goggles I’d won from the MonoMono Machine from my pocket. 

“These are perfect!” Takamaru exclaimed as he took them. He tried them on before turning in the chair of his cockpit and looking back at me. “Noise, when we get outta here, I’m gonna take you somewhere.” 

“Where?” I asked. 

“Doesn’t matter!” Takamaru replied. “Where do you wanna go? I’ll fly you there, all-expense paid.” 

“Is that legal?” I inquired doubtfully. 

“Well you’ll need a passport if it’s out of the country,” Takamaru admitted, “and my old man will have to come along since I’m still not licensed to fly alone.” 

“Your dad’s a pilot too?” I wondered. 

“Yup! Have I not told you?” Takamaru asked in disbelief. “I guess we never really hung out before this, huh. Well, yeah, my old man’s the best in the country. He taught me everything I know.” 

“Must be nice,” I muttered. 

“You and your dad not on the best terms?” Takamaru inferred. 

“Which 1?” I scoffed. 

“Ah,” Takamaru replied as he seemed to understand, “I’ll leave it alone then.” 

“Thanks,” I sighed, “I’m gonna go finish up that route now.” 

Despite the unwelcome reminder of my old life at home, hanging with Takamaru did help me get my head back on straight. With a clear mind, I finished the route before dinner, and I delivered my findings to Miaya in the Ultimate Pilot's lab. She thanked me through Usami, and I went back upstairs to the restaurant. 

Over dinner, we discussed our plans for the recon mission. Takamaru, of course, would fly Angela along the designated route and survey the sea for signs of land. Ren, Yusuke, and Reiko would keep a lookout from the deck of the ship with binoculars, which Reiko had obtained from a tourist costume in the Ultimate Thespian's lab. Miaya and I would monitor Takamaru’s progress from within the ship. Aloud, we told Hachise to stay out of the mission, but Miaya slipped her some paper with secret instructions to distract Monokuma to keep him from getting involved. None us trusted that he would really let us leave without some kind of catch. 

After we finished eating, Ren and Yusuke went to the deck while Hachise fucked off on her own somewhere. Miaya, Reiko, and I went with Takamaru to the Ultimate Pilot's lab. Takamaru climbed into the cockpit and donned the goggles I had given him. We watched him perform 1 last inspection before revving the bird’s engine and giving us a thumbs up. 

“Before you go,” Usami said on Miaya’s behalf, “let’s review the new on-board computer.” 

“What?” Takamaru called over the plane’s engine. 

Miaya silently sighed and gestured for me to follow her as she climbed onto the plane with Takamaru. I followed her, and I watched her show the Ultimate Pilot something new in the plane’s cockpit. The computer from the Ultimate Forensic Criminalist's lab and its monitor had been incorporated into the cockpit next to a radio and a button shaped like Usami’s face. 

Takamaru pressed the button, and the monitor lit up with the familiar image of Usami. Miaya typed something into her handbook, and the Usami on the plane’s monitor spoke. “I’ve connected the computer to the plane’s power supply and radio system, and after upgrading it with a new graphics card and hard drive, I uploaded a modified copy of the app that lets me talk through Usami,” the Usami on the plane explained. “I’ve also uploaded a digital copy of Noise’s route, so defer to the computer for that as well as regular communication with us.” 

“You got it, chief!” Takamaru cheered with a salute. 

“Stay safe!” Reiko instructed her boyfriend as Miaya and I returned to the ground. 

“Stick to the route!” I instructed. 

“So long, peasants!” Takamaru bade us as the cockpit closed. “I’m off to return to my rightful place among the clouds!” 

Miaya used a control panel beside the runway to open the massive doors at the other end of the hangar. With a rolling start, Angela carried Takamaru down the runway to the exit, where she made a clean take-off after leaving the ship. Reiko tapped her foot nervously before rushing out to the deck to join Ren and Yusuke. 

Miaya sat in a rolling chair by the hangar’s control panel and typed something into her handbook. “Takamaru, what’s your status?” Usami asked. 

“All clear! She flies like a dream!” Takamaru’s staticky voice informed us through the handbook. 

“This is a pretty tight setup,” I complimented. “This the shit you been workin’ on all day?” 

Miaya nodded and smiled proudly at me. 

We waited in silence for minutes before Takamaru’s voice checked back in. “C-m- -n, g-o-n- c-n-t-o-.” The Ultimate Pilot could barely be heard through the static. 

“Repeat,” Usami said at Miaya’s behest. 

“Some-h-n-’s wrong,” Takamaru reported. “The air’s to- -h-c-.” 

“Report!” Usami instructed. 

“The cloud- -r- -o- -o-,” Takamaru’s voice said. 

“Return to hangar,” Usami relayed. “I repeat: return to hangar.” 

“Negative.” Takamaru said clearly through the static. 

“We need to go see what’s happening,” I said. Miaya silently but emphatically agreed, and the 2 of us rushed out of the Ultimate Pilot's lab. We sprinted up staircase after staircase. “What the hell’s that noise?” I wondered aloud as we ascended the last set of stairs to the deck. 

The evening sun blinded me for a moment as Miaya and I stepped onto the deck. When my vision cleared, I got my answer. Takamaru’s plane was coming straight toward us. No, it was already here. I didn’t even have time to shout. The crash happened instantly. 


	11. Chapter 5R: Parade st@R

I awoke in a stone cell. Somehow, I couldn’t remember how I got there. I pulled myself off the gray, brick floor and peered through the cell’s iron bars, past which was a circular room. At the center of the room stood a wooden desk atop a blue rug, which was decorated with golden designs in the shapes of leaves and the English letter  _ V _ . Atop the desk were a small microphone, a stack of papers, a quill in an inkwell, and a golden lamp, and sitting in a velvet chair behind the surface was a curious old man. 

The man wore a black suit with a loose tie and white gloves. He had a pointed nose longer than his hands, and his circular, bloodshot eyes nearly bulged out of his head. His gray hair had receded well past the top of his head, but his long, feathery eyebrows were still pitch-black. His unnatural smile nearly reached his pointed ears. 

Next to the man’s desk stood a young girl wearing a blue dress and black gloves. She had golden eyes and long, platinum-colored hair, which was kept neatly out of her face by a blue headband decorated with black frills and butterfly-shaped ornaments. She carried a massive tome titled, “Le Grimoire.” 

“Ah, so you’ve finally awoken,” the old man said in a quizzical voice. “Well, perhaps  _ awoken  _ isn’t the correct word.” 

“Regardless, you seem to have become aware of your surroundings,” the girl added. 

“Where am I?” I asked. 

“This is the Velvet Room,” the man explained. “It exists on the crossroads between reality and dreams, life and death.” 

“However, in your case, you are much closer to the latter,” the girl clarified. 

“I see,” I said. 

“I am Igor,” the old man introduced himself, “and this is Lavenza.” 

“It is truly a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” Lavenza said with a polite curtsy. 

“It is unusual for someone who possesses neither the Wild Card nor a contract to appear here,” Igor continued, “but your power is also unusual, even among those who wield the power of Persona.” 

 “We apologize for the inconvenience,” Lavenza apologized, “but since you are an anomaly, we cannot risk allowing your power to cause harm to this place.” 

“I don’t understand,” I replied. 

“There is no need for you to fully understand as of yet,” Igor told me. “Should your true power be realized, we will be able to assist you, but at the moment, there is nothing we can do.” 

“What is my true power?” I asked. 

“The power is not yours, at least not yet,” Igor answered. “It is both a fragment and a whole, a fraction and a collection.” 

“The power is born from a great evil,” Lavenza continued, “but how you use it will determine its true nature.” 

“Our time is nearly over,” Igor said. “Gale Rovere, you will soon awaken in  _ that  _ other world.” 

On cue, my eyes jolted awake. I found myself outdoors on another stone floor. I pulled myself to my feet again, and I looked around. The harsh sun beat down on a marble colosseum. My Metaversal garbs revealed that I was not in the real world. Hundreds of Monokumas cheered frantically in the seats around the arena, but their nondescript jeers were silenced by a feminine voice. “Friends, Monokumas, countrymen, lend me your ears!” 

I turned to see someone standing from a throne in one of sixteen stone balconies at the height of the colosseum. She was the spitting image of Hachise, but she wore a long toga, and her whole body seemed to be crafted from marble. Bloodstained olive branches decorated her ears. “Blood! Blood!” the Monokumas began to chant. “Execution! Execution!” 

“Very well!” the stone Hachise decreed. “There will be blood!” 

I reached into my vest and was glad to find the fake gun I had been carrying was still there. To my surprise, I also found a red whip on the ground beside me. I picked up the weapon and turned to face a huge iron gate that was opening on one side of the arena. To my surprise, the figure who walked out appeared to be Noise, but he was wearing bronze armor resembling that of a gladiator. 

Suddenly, my e-Handbook started buzzing in my pocket. I quickly produced the device and saw that the Metaverse Navigator’s icon was wiggling. When I opened it, however, I was greeted not by the usual creepy background, but rather a video of a small, teenage girl. She wore a black shirt with “JLMK!” printed on it in gold letters. Most distinctly, however, her head was covered by a green helmet with a black visor beneath an orange beak and a pair of fake, beady eyes. I thought I recognized the mask from a kid’s TV show. She sat at a desk with a keyboard in a dark room, and I appeared to be looking at her through a webcam atop her monitor. 

To the girl’s left and right were two other teenagers whose entire heads were covered by masks. One wore a white, collared shirt beneath a mask in the shape of Mona’s comically large, cartoonish head. The other had a pink turtleneck and wore a mask that resembled a demonic sheep with curved horns and red eyes.

“Hello! Can you hear us?” the girl in the green mask asked. 

“I’m a bit busy at the moment,” I replied as I turned back toward Noise, whose approach hastened as he sprinted across the arena toward me. 

Long blades folded out of the sides of his arms like switchblades, and he licked his lips before shouting, “Let’s dance, motherfucker!” 

“Hey, listen!” the green-masked girl beckoned from my handbook. “You’re in Hachise Kurotsuki’s Palace, and that’s her cognition of Shoichi Noizu!” 

“I picked up on that,” I retorted. “Odysseus!” My Persona appeared at my side and pointed his gun at the cognitive Noise. When I fired, however, the being blocked the bullet with his swords and continued his charge. 

“It’s strong, and guns won’t help! Be careful!” the Mona-masked girl warned from the screen. 

I rolled sideways to evade a slash from the cognitive Noise’s blades. Then I twirled around and lashed out with my new whip. The weapon cracked against my enemy’s chest and knocked him back for a moment, but he quickly continued his assault. “Your health is dangerously low,” the green-masked girl told me as I sidestepped to evade another slash. “Hurry up and heal!” 

“Would if I could!” I shouted back as Odysseus conjured a gust of wind to blast the cognitive Noise backwards. 

The cognition twirled around and immediately counterattacked, however, and when I ducked under his first blade, I found myself face-to-face with the edge of his second sword. “Prometheus, interfere!” the green-masked girl called from my handbook, and a transparent barrier momentarily appeared to block the attack. 

“It’s a powerful enemy,” the girl with the feline mask analyzed. “Finish it quickly with curse attacks!” 

“Odysseus doesn’t have any curse attacks!” I retorted as I struck at the cognition with my whip again, only for it to dodge. 

“Do you have a five-inch nail or a straw doll perhaps?” the sheep-masked girl asked as I barely evaded another flurry of slices. 

Pocketing my handbook, I retrieved the voodoo doll I had received from Emiko and held it forward. The doll vanished into a stream of red light, which surrounded the cognitive Noise and caused him to disintegrate into dust. The Monokumas in the crowd began booing loudly. I turned toward Hachise’s Shadow, who scowled down at me furiously. “Why, you little…” the stone girl growled. 

“Quickly! This way!” another voice called. I turned and saw Usami, about the same size as the real-world Monokuma, waving toward me from behind the opened gate. I darted from the center of the colosseum toward her as the gate began to close, and I slid under it just in time to avoid being trapped in the arena. 

“Usami?” I asked. “What the hell are you doing here?” 

“I’m not sure,” Usami admitted, “but I want to help. We have to hurry before the guards arrive!” 

I followed Usami through the colosseum’s stone halls. We momentarily ducked behind a corner as a group of Shadowy guards dressed as Greco-Roman legionnaires ran past. Then, after turning around a few more halls, we came to a door. Usami beckoned for me to follow her inside, and within, we found what seemed to be another Safe Room like the one Mona had found in Kari’s Palace. As the room shifted, it occasionally resembled the infirmary on the third floor. 

“We made it,” Usami breathed in relief. 

I sat on the bed of the infirmary and opened the Metaverse Navigator on my e-Handbook. “I need to go back and regroup with the others,” I said, but the app didn’t respond to my input. After a moment, it returned to a video of the three masked girls. “Hey, what’s going on?” I asked them. “Why can’t I return to the real world?” 

“Monokuma uploaded a software update to your Meta-Nav that stops it from responding to the touchscreen,” the green-masked girl explained. “You won’t be able to activate it to return to the real world.” 

“What? You’re leaving already?” Usami asked in a distressed voice. 

“Apparently not,” I sighed, “just what the hell is going on?” 

“I’ve been trying to hack into Monokuma’s network for a while now,” the green-masked girl explained. “I managed to access some security camera feed and a file on the rules for your ‘killing game,’ so I have a basic understanding of your situation.” 

“Who are you, anyway?” I asked. 

“You can call me Alibaba,” the girl introduced herself and her companions. “These are Cassim,” she said as she gestured toward the sheepish girl, “and Morgiana,” gesturing toward the Mona-faced girl, “but this is an unsecured channel, so I’m afraid that’s all I can tell you, but we’re on your side.” 

“We’re actually Phan—” 

“Phanboys!” Alibaba interrupted Cassim. “We’re  _ huge  _ Phanboys!” 

“Wouldn’t we be ‘Phangirls’?” Morgiana wondered aloud. 

“In that case, call me Ranger,” I introduced myself. “I’ll take whatever help I can get. Have you gotten any info on the mastermind,” I asked, “or do you know where in the world the ship is?” 

“I’m afraid we don’t,” Morgiana admitted. “It’s taken everything we have just to get this far.” 

“I hid a virus inside Monokuma’s software update that installed vid-chat capabilities and a Metaverse-sync in your Meta-Nav alongside his click-disabler,” Alibaba explained, “but that’s the first real win we’ve had. I’ve tried installing copies of your Meta-Nav on other people’s handbooks through the ship’s wireless network, but Monokuma deletes them as soon as he notices they’re there.” 

“Are you the ones who put the Meta-Nav on my handbook?” I asked. 

“No, Monokuma installed your Meta-Nav himself,” Cassim said, “but we don’t really know why he did or how he got his hands on it.” 

“Regardless, as long as you’re in the Metaverse, if you have the Meta-Nav open, I can use my Persona to provide navigation and support,” Alibaba offered, “even if I’m still in the real world.” 

“What about that old man and the girl?” I asked. “The Velvet Room or whatever it was,” I clarified. 

The girls looked around at each other and shrugged before Alibaba apologized, “Sorry, we didn’t see any of that, so we don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

“Argh, what am I even doing in the Metaverse anyway?” I asked myself. Usami gave me a worried look as I fell backward into the bed. 

“Do you mean…” Cassim started. 

“You don’t remember?” Morgiana asked. 

“You were executed,” Alibaba told me bluntly. 

Suddenly, the scene came rushing back to me. I had been falling from the broken diving board into a vat of mechanical sharks. “Hachise Kurotsuki!” I had yelled at the girl who’d set me up. 

“Candidate found,” a synthetic voice in my pocket had chimed. I had been desperate for an exit, any exit. The remnants of Mementos had been too dangerous, but a Palace had been more likely to have solid ground. 

“Trial grounds,” I had said under my breath while falling into the water. 

“Candidate found,” my e-Handbook had repeated. 

_ I need a name, a place, and a distortion. Think. Think. What’s her distortion? What’s her distortion?  _

The sharks had surrounded me. One of them had bitten into my leg. The pain had jolted my memory, and I’d thought back to my trip to the remnants of Mementos. There had been another building in the distance. Mona had said the Palaces on this ship were branches of Mementos, so I’d thought that building might be a Palace. 

“Colosseum,” I had gurgled into the water as the sharks’ teeth had sunk deeper. 

“Candidate found,” the handbook had rung to my relief. “Beginning navigation.” 

That was as far as I could remember. “I escaped into Hachise’s Palace,” I recalled aloud, “but what happened to my injuries? My leg was…” 

I rolled up my pants to check, but there were no signs of damage where the teeth had sunken in. “I’m not sure,” Alibaba said. “You’re definitely still hurt, but you should be much worse. All your wounds had closed by the time my connection to your handbook stabilized. Before then, we had to watch through a security camera in the trial grounds.” 

“Did you do it?” I asked Usami, who had been oddly quiet. 

“Don’t look at me!” Usami denied. “Of course, I would happily heal you if I could, but I don’t have any healing powers…” 

“Figures,” I sighed. “Hey, Alibaba, do you know what’s up with this Usami?” I asked as I pointed my handbook toward the odd rabbit to offer a view of her to the technologists. 

“I’m not sure,” Alibaba relayed. “She doesn’t seem quite like any Shadow I’ve ever seen, so it’s possible she’s one of Hachise’s cognitions, but I can’t imagine who she’d be a cognition of.” 

“Hmm, it could be Miaya Gekkogahara,” I deliberated. 

“What are you talking about?” Usami protested. “I’m me, and that’s that!” 

“Anyway, your health is still really low,” Alibaba observed, “so you should rest for now. We’ll keep trying to get Meta-Navs to the other Phantom Thieves in the meantime, but it’s too dangerous for you to wander around this Palace alone at your current power level.” 

“Alright,” I agreed reluctantly, “let me know if you have any luck.” 

Sleep came a lot easier on the Safe Room’s bed than I had expected. I’m not sure how long I was out, but I woke up to the sound of my handbook’s buzzing. I tapped on the Meta-Nav’s icon to open a video feed of Alibaba and her cyber thieves. “Ranger! Get up! Hurry!” 

“What’s going on?” I asked as I jolted out of bed. A comical bubble attached to Usami’s nose popped as she jolted awake as well. She had apparently been sleeping against the wall. 

“I’m getting some strange readings back in the arena,” Alibaba reported. “I can’t be certain, but it looks like another Persona user.” 

“Is it Joker?” I asked 

“It can’t be,” Cassim reported. “According to the security cameras, he and Fox are eating together in the real world.” 

“I’m gonna check it out,” I declared. 

“Ranger, aside from the Phantom Thieves, we don’t know the identities of any Persona users,” Morgiana said. “Proceed with  _ extreme  _ caution.” 

“It could be the person who healed me,” I theorized. “If they’re trapped here too, they might need my help. You said yourself this Palace is too dangerous for just one Persona user to handle.” 

“Which is exactly why you need to be careful,” Morgiana sighed. 

“I will,” I assured her as I darted out of the Safe Room. 

“Wait for me!” Usami cried as she followed me into the colosseum’s halls. Cautiously avoiding the various guards patrolling the area, I made my way back toward the arena. I reached the iron bars of the arena’s gate. I could hear the crowd of Monokumas going wild as two figures battled near the center. One of them was dressed in gladiatorial armor. I wasn’t quite sure due to the distance, but I thought he looked like Ren. 

The second figure was dressed in black; a dark helmet covered their face. They effortlessly evaded their opponent’s blade, which was shaped like a giant key, before riposting with their own sword. The black figure ducked under a swing from the cognitive Ren as they withdrew their sword. Twirling their blade around, they sliced through the cognitive Ren’s legs—just above the greaves—and when the cognition fell to his knees, the mysterious figure raised a pistol to the cognition’s head and pulled the trigger. The cognition faded to dust, and the mysterious figure flourished their sword before sheathing it.  _ They didn’t use a Persona… _

“Hey!” I shouted through the bars. “Who are you?” 

The mysterious figure turned toward me briefly. “ _ Paradise Lost _ ,” a familiar voice said with a wide smile before fading from view. 

Suddenly, the gate in front of me lurched open. “Uh-oh!” Usami said as she hid behind my legs. 

“Well, well, well,” Hachise’s Shadow mocked from her balcony above the arena, “if it isn’t my little Galey. Back for more, are you? Dying once wasn’t enough?” A pair of guards emerged from the shadows behind me and ushered me forward with their spears. 

“So much for being careful,” Alibaba’s voice chastised from the handbook in my pocket. 

Usami and I reluctantly moved deeper into the arena. “Don’t worry,” Hachise’s Shadow mused, “I’m sure we can find a suitable execution for you. Oh, Reikamaru!” The crowd cheered as an iron gate on the other side of the arena opened, and another creature approached. This one looked like Reiko and Takamaru, both of whom were dressed in gladiatorial armor, but they were literally joined at the hip and shared a single lower body. Instead of the crested helmet worn by the other cognitions, Reiko’s face was covered by a red theatrical mask. In its four arms, the cognition carried two gladii and two bucklers. 

“Usami, stay back,” I warned the small rabbit as I braced myself. The two Shadows that had driven me into the arena melted into black ooze and reemerged as a pair of mechanical angels like I had seen in Kari’s Palace. 

“You’re surrounded! Three enemies!” Alibaba reported from my handbook. 

The two mechanical angels launched their fists at me from behind. I ducked under one attack but covered myself with my arms as the second fist flew into me. The blow knocked me off my feet and onto the ground, and I rolled sideways just in time to dodge a blast of fire launched by the cognitive Reikamaru. 

“The enemy is strong,” Morgiana analyzed. “Let’s aim for its wind weakness!” 

“Persona!” I called. Odysseus materialized at my side and launched a blast of wind at one of the mechanical angels. The attack knocked the Shadow down. 

“Well done! Keep up the pressure!” Cassim beckoned, and I repeated my attack with a blast of air to the other angelic Shadow. 

After knocking that one down as well, I turned to the cognitive Reikamaru. “Fall!” I shouted as Odysseus summoned another powerful gust that knocked down the hybridized cognition. 

“Ranger! I can help!” Usami called as she moved in front of me and summoned a pink wand decorated with white wings and a golden, heart-shaped tip. 

“Then let’s get ‘em!” I declared as Usami and I descended onto the downed opponents. With my whip in hand, the cartoonish rabbit and I tore through our enemies in a blinding flurry of blows. I cracked my whip as the attack ended, and the two mechanical angels turned to dust. 

“Just one left!” Cassim encouraged. 

“Here!” Usami cried as she raised her wand into the air, and suddenly I felt my body become lighter. 

The cognitive Reikamaru got to its feet, and the red mask on Reiko’s face changed to blue. 

“It changed!” Morgiana observed. 

The cognitive hybrid expelled a blast of icy shards from its mask, but thanks to my boosted agility, I evaded the icicles and circled around. 

“Fire is its weak point!” Alibaba analyzed. “It’s powerful! Hang in there!” 

“Got any fire attacks?” I asked Usami as I considered my options. 

“I-I don’t have much of anything!” Usami stammered. 

“Damn,” I cursed, “I could really use Panther right about now…” 

“You’ll just have to make do!” Morgiana retorted. 

“Odysseus!” I beckoned, and my Persona fired a bullet from its long-barreled gun at the cognition. The creature shielded itself with one of its bucklers, but the blast still knocked it back. 

“Light!” Usami called as she summoned a small burst of light from her wand that buffeted the four-armed cognition. 

The creature’s mask changed from blue to yellow, and a burst of electricity arced from its mask into Usami. The pink rabbit cried in pain as her cartoonish skeleton flashed in and out of view. 

“Now it’s weak to—”

“If it isn’t wind or guns, save it!” I interrupted Alibaba as Odysseus reappeared at my side and fired another round at the cognition. This time, however, the creature dodged as Takamaru’s arms transformed into mechanical wings that carried the creature into the air. I turned to Usami, who seemed to be paralyzed from the electric attack, and then I looked back at my cognitive foe. 

Now, its mask changed from yellow to gray. “Not good!” Morgiana warned. “Get ready!” 

The airborne cognition descended toward me and swung its gladius at my head. I barely dodged the attack, and then I backpedaled and swerved to avoid a flurry of consecutive slashes. “Hey, Baba, you got anything for me?” I asked through my teeth as the cognition’s blade grazed the side of my hair. 

“It’s weak to gunfire!” she reported excitedly. “Ready, aim…” 

“Fire! Fire! Fire!” Morgiana interrupted. 

“Fall!” I declared as Odysseus appeared beside me and fired its gun into the cognition at point-blank range. The hybrid fell to the ground, and my Persona quickly reloaded by spinning its gun’s ethereal cylinder. “Last shot!” I called as my other self pulled the trigger, and the cognitive Reikamaru dissolved into black dust. 

Another wave of boos came from the crowd of Monokumas, and Hachise’s Shadow shrieked in frustration. Usami and I beelined it to the iron gates before they could seal us in the arena, and we darted through the stone hallways to avoid waves of guards that came from all directions. “Security’s going to be tight now,” Alibaba commented from my handbook. 

“Can we make it back to the Safe Room?” I asked Usami. 

“The one we used before is too close to the arena,” she replied. “It’ll be heavily guarded.” 

“Do you know about another one then?” I asked. 

“Yeah!” Usami cheered. “Follow me!” 

Usami and I crept through the Palace and carefully avoided the guards. Despite my attempts to hide it, my body still ached from the blow I’d taken from that angelic Shadow at the start of that fight. “Alibaba, did you guys see that person in the arena?” I asked under my breath while a patrol of guards passed the corner I was hiding behind. 

“Sort of,” Alibaba replied, “my Persona detected them, but they were out of my visual range.” 

“I don’t suppose you have any clue who it was then,” I guessed aloud. 

“No, did you see what kind of Persona they used?” she asked. “That might give us a hint.” 

“They didn’t use a Persona,” I reported, “but when I asked them who they were, they said, ‘ _ Paradise Lost _ .’ Does that mean anything to you?” 

“It’s an English poem by John Milton,” Morgiana shared, “but I don’t know what it would have to do with the Phantom Thieves or the Metaverse.” 

“I can do some digging on the Net,” Alibaba offered, “but for now, I think you should avoid them.” 

_ That person just vanished after killing that cognition. It was like they left the Metaverse. Does that mean they’re on the boat?  _

“Was everyone accounted for on the ship when you detected that person?” I asked as I moved from my spot to the next hall. 

“I can’t tell,” Alibaba said regretfully. “I could see Joker and Fox, but our access to the security cameras is limited and spotty at best. I don’t know where everyone else was.” 

“Then it seems like someone besides the Phantom Thieves has access to the Metaverse,” I deduced, “but if they really are bad news, why would they heal me?” 

“Worry about that after you get to safety,” Alibaba advised. 

With Usami’s guidance and Alibaba’s assistance, I made it to the next Safe Room without alerting any Shadows. The weakened distortions in the room gave way to glimpses of what looked like one of the ship’s dorm rooms. I sat on the shifting bedside and tried to rub the soreness out of my ribs. “I’m guessing you’ve had no luck with the Phantom Thieves,” I groaned at my handbook. 

“Zilch,” Alibaba sighed, “we’ll keep trying. Cassim is procuring some extra servers I can use for processing power. Monokuma upgraded his network’s security after I updated your Meta-Nav, but I think I can brute-force it with some extra hardware.” 

“In the meantime,” I said, “I don’t suppose there’s anything to eat while I’m stuck here.” My growling stomach betrayed the lack of the regular meals I had become accustomed to. 

“There might be something you can eat in chests around the Palace,” Alibaba speculated. 

“I’ll start looking then,” I replied as I tried to get to my feet, but a sharp pang in my chest forced me back onto the bed. 

“Don’t push yourself!” Usami urged. “Wait here! I’ll find you something!” 

Without much choice, I waited while Usami left the Safe Room. She took long enough that I began to wonder if she would return, or maybe I was just restless with nothing to do. I still had questions for Alibaba, but the pain in my chest distracted me every time I started to string together an inquiry. 

After what must have been hours, Usami returned with a loaf of bread, a bottle of water, and a bottle of medicine. “Thanks,” I offered as I took the sustenance and meds. Somehow, the bread was even more filling than I expected, and the medicine, despite being a simple headache reliever, completely cured the pain in my chest.  _ They must work differently in the Metaverse.  _

“I’m glad you were able to hold out!” Usami assured me with a relieved voice. 

“Hey, Alibaba,” I asked my handbook, “do you know where Hachise’s Treasure is?” 

“Huh? No, why do you want to find it?” Alibaba asked. She and Morgiana were still within view of the camera, but Cassim had left my view. 

“I want to steal it and change her heart,” I answered plainly. 

“Whoa, what?” Alibaba exclaimed. “If you do that, her Palace will fall apart, and you still don’t have a way out!” 

“Yeah, I know,” I agreed, “but I don’t think I could return to the real world even if the Meta-Nav was working. I was the blackened in the last trial, so I’m pretty sure Monokuma’d just execute me. Plus, I can’t just leave Hachise like this. If this keeps up, she could get someone else killed, or she might even win the killing game and get  _ everyone _ executed.” 

“You’re crazy,” Morgiana criticized. 

“Who cares?” I retorted. “You want to help the Phantom Thieves, right? Then, let me help them by stealing Hachise’s Treasure.” 

“Look, Ranger,” Alibaba sighed, “even if I wanted to help, and I’m not saying I do, I don’t have any clue where the Treasure is. My Persona’s range is pretty limited since I’m only indirectly linked to the Palace through your Meta-Nav, so I can’t see much farther than you.” 

“Um-m,” Usami stuttered, “I might know where the Treasure is.” 

“Really?” I asked. “Can you show me?” 

“Yeah!” Usami agreed. 

“No!” Morgiana disagreed. “Stay put and wait for backup!” 

“We don’t know when Monokuma will give the next motive,” I argued, “or if Hachise will even wait that long. This place needs to go down ASAP. I’ll deal with the consequences when we get there.” 

Alibaba was silent for a while before replying, “Well, if I can’t stop you, we can at least try to keep you from getting yourself killed in the meantime.” 

“I appreciate it,” I thanked her with a smile. 

Usami led me out of the Safe Room and deeper into the winding halls of the labyrinth. We ascended a stone staircase and allowed a patrol of guards to pass before darting down another hall. “It’s just a little farther,” Usami assured me. 

“Hmm,” Alibaba hummed from my pocket, “I can definitely detect  _ something  _ ahead.” 

Cautiously, I followed Usami until we came to a large set of stone double-doors on the side of the hallway. “The Treasure is through this door!” Usami told me as she pointed to the threshold with her wand. Much to my dismay, however, the doors were covered by a barrier of geometric light. 

“Dammit,” I cursed under my breath, “we can’t get through unless we open a door in the real world.” 

“What door do you think it is?” Alibaba wondered aloud. 

“I’m not sure,” I admitted as I traced my hand over the stone in search of any identifying trait. “The one in Kari’s Palace was the door to Miaya’s room, but there’s no sign on this one.” 

“If it’s not a dorm room, I wonder where else it could be,” Morgiana added. 

My train of thought was interrupted by a deep braying sound at the end of the long hallway. When I turned, I saw another Shadow. This one wore the same Greco-Roman armor as the other guards, but it stood atop a golden chariot and held a pair of reins attached to a pitch-black horse. A glowing red aura flickered off its body, and a pair of bright red lights taking the place of eyes stared me down beneath its crested helmet. 

“That dark enemy’s powered up,” Alibaba analyzed. “Watch out! You should probably just run.” 

The charioteering Shadow whipped its reins, and the nightmarish horse unleashed another demonic bray before galloping toward me. The spikes on the chariot’s wheels scraped against the stone walls as the chariot was jerked from side to side by the steed’s serpentine charge. “Shit-shit-shit!” I shouted as I turned and sprinted back the way we’d come. 

Usami’s stubby legs caused her to lag behind for a moment before she jumped forward and clung to my back for a ride. I reached a corner of the hall and jumped sideways just in time to avoid being trampled, but my leap of faith ended poorly when my feet hit the stone staircase, and I tumbled down the unforgiving steps. “Ow-ow-ow!” Usami squeaked as her fluffy body occasionally cushioned my back against our ungraceful descent. 

I scrambled to my feet at the base of the steps when I noticed the charioteer was driving its horse down the staircase after me. “I could use some help!” I called to Alibaba as I frantically dashed around a corner. The charioteer crashed into the wall at the corner, but the demonic horse quickly regained its composure and dashed after me. The capsized chariot was pulled back onto its wheels by the steed’s charge, and the Shadowy driver appeared unbothered by the commotion. 

“Take a right!” Alibaba instructed. “Left is a dead end!” 

I dashed to the right at a nearby four-way intersection, and the chariot momentarily drove straight through the intersection before coming back around the corner and continuing its pursuit. I sprinted onward toward a fork in the hall. The sound of screeching wheels and galloping hooves drove me to speeds I had never reached. “Which way?” I asked through heavy breaths. 

“Go left!” Alibaba answered. “Right’s another dead end!” 

“What kind?” I asked in desperation. 

“There’s a pitfall!” she replied. “You’ll be cornered!” 

“Perfect!” I exclaimed before darting to the right at the fork. The charioteer’s second crash into the wall past the middle of the fork bought me some time to regain a few meters of distance between us, but the driver continued after me within seconds. 

“Hey! What are you doing?” Alibaba shouted. 

“It’s too strong for you to fight!” Morgiana warned. 

Just like Alibaba reported, the hall ahead was interrupted by a rectangular pit that covered the breadth of the floor. The gap was definitely too wide to jump. As the sound of hooves and deep braying closed in on me, I leapt forward into the gap. “Usami! I choose you!” I shouted as I threw the cartoonish rabbit off my back toward the far end of the gap. 

“W-w-w-what!” Usami cried as she gripped the stone ledge and turned back toward me. Taking the whip from my side, I lashed the weapon forward at my pink companion. Usami let go of the ledge with one forepaw and caught my whip with the other. Somehow, the small creature held me aloft, and I swung forward into the wall on the far side of the pit. Planting my feet on the wall, I looked back up and saw the black horse at the front of the chariot bucking angrily as it refused to cross the gap. 

“Are you trying to give me a heart attack?” Morgiana shouted through the handbook in my pocket. 

“U-Usami,” I called to the cartoonish creature as she clung for dear life, “do  _ not  _ let go.” 

“I-I-I’ve got you!” the rabbit stammered as she heaved herself up onto the ledge and clung to the whip with both hands. Exaggerated drops of sweat flew off her body before vanishing into thin air. Pulling myself up the whip, I slowly but surely stepped up the wall and climbed out of the pit next to Usami. The pink rabbit stuck her tongue out at the Shadow across the pit from us, and the dark charioteer turned around before riding back down the hall. 

I collapsed onto my ass in exhaustion, and I gripped my chest when I thought my heart would burst out of it. “You should get out of there,” Alibaba suggested. “It might know another way around.” 

“Good thinking,” I agreed between heavy breaths. Forcing myself back to my feet, I walked with Usami down the hall. I turned right at an intersection and noticed a chest at the end of the hall. “Palaces don’t have mimics, right?” I asked. 

“Not as far as I know,” Alibaba answered, “I’m not detecting any Shadows near you.” 

“Alright,” I huffed as I continued to catch my breath, “then let’s see what we’ve got.”

When I approached the chest, however, the floor beneath me suddenly opened, and I fell onto a stone ramp. “Ah!” Usami cried as she fell in after me. 

“Whoa-whoa!” I exclaimed as I scrambled to try to escape the ramp, but the floor was slick, and I helplessly slid downward. I covered my head to brace myself as I saw we were approaching a wall, but at the last moment, the wall opened, and I was expelled outward into broad daylight. 

I got back on my feet, and I saw the unwelcome but familiar sight of the colosseum’s grand arena. Again, Monokumas cheered and jeered from all sides, and Hachise’s Shadow leered down at Usami and me from her balcony. “Careful!” a voice from my pocket warned. “I think the chest might be a trap!” 

I sighed and brushed the dirt off my pants before turning to the center of the arena, where I saw another cognitive gladiator. This one resembled Yusuke, and he wielded a broadsword, at the tip of which was a giant paintbrush glowing with technicolor liquid. “I’m getting real sick of this,” I groaned. 

The cognitive Yusuke flourished his paintbrush, and I stepped closer to him. “This one’s weak to psychokinesis,” Morgiana analyzed. I glanced questioningly at Usami, but the rabbit just shook her head. With another sigh, I continued my trek toward my newest opponent. 

The cognitive Yusuke slashed its brush through the air, and I braced to dodge some ranged attack, but instead, the oily substance that sprayed from the brush manifested into the familiar form of a mushroom-headed Shadow. “That one’s weak to fire,” I recalled aloud. “Got any other tips for me?”

“This guy’s nothin’ special,” Alibaba observed. “It’s weak to bless attacks.” 

“In that case, he’s all yours!” I told Usami as I rushed toward the Shadow and the cognition. I slid under a wide swing from the mushroom-headed Shadow’s heavy claymore before darting past it. 

Usami followed behind me and blasted the Shadow with a beam of light as it turned to swing at me again. “I won’t let you!” she cried, and the Shadow faded to black dust under the force of the attack. 

“Persona!” I called as Odysseus pointed his gun at the cognitive Yusuke. My other self fired a bullet at the gladiatorial artist, who blocked with a buckler attached to his off-hand but was still knocked back by the attack. 

The cognitive Yusuke responded by swinging his brush through the air again. This time, the technicolor paint flew into the air and took the form of a new Shadow. This one resembled a golden sarcophagus decorated with Egyptian engravings. A creepy pale arm pulsing with violet veins reached out of the side of the coffin. “Wind is effective!” Morgiana reported as she analyzed this new foe. “Keep calm, and this’ll go smoothly.” 

“Fall!” I beckoned as Odysseus buffeted the entombed Shadow with a gust of air. 

“Use this opportunity!” Morgiana encouraged as the creature fell on its back. I turned my attention to the cognitive Yusuke, and Odysseus fired another bullet at the gladiator. The cognitive Yusuke again defended with his buckler but was buffeted by the force of the attack. 

“Here!” Usami called as a wave of energy surged through me, and I felt the familiar sensation of my reflexes sharpening. 

The cognitive Yusuke drew his sharpened brush across the ground, and from the smear emerged a third Shadow. This one looked like the red-cloaked puppeteer I had previously seen in the remnants of Mementos. “Bless skills will work here,” Morgiana observed. “The enemy is weak, but don’t relax yet.” 

The red-cloaked Shadow stabbed its tiny puppet with its pointed nail, and a surge of necrotic energy pulsed through Usami. The cartoonish rabbit recoiled in pain, but she quickly regained her composure and retaliated with another blast of light that disintegrated the foe. 

Then, the golden sarcophagus pulled itself upright, and it emitted an eerie, hypnotizing sound. I felt myself becoming drowsy, but I shook my head to clear the sensation. When I turned to Usami, however, I saw the pinkish rabbit had fallen fast asleep on her feet. I cursed under my breath and then turned back to the entombed Shadow. “Odysseus!” I cried as my Persona repeated its windy attack against the creature. This time, the blast dissolved the Shadow, and I continued the assault by firing another bullet from my Persona’s gun at the cognitive Yusuke. 

This attack, however, was dodged by the artistic gladiator, who summoned another Shadow from a streak of paint he scrawled through the air. This Shadow had an angelic appearance, but it was a far cry from the mechanical Shadows I had seen before. For all intents and purposes, it appeared human. It had pale skin and flowing blue hair, and it wore a white robe decorated with a red cape, from under which extended a pair of feathery, white wings. The creature also wore a white, scroll-like scarf that floated over its shoulders. It carried a silver scale in one hand and a blue book in the other. “It’s powerful,” Morgiana stated, “but guns should shut it down.” 

The Shadow opened its book and conjured a wave of cold that materialized as a tree-shaped mold of ice around me. The ice formed too quickly for me to evade, and I found myself wrapped in pain as the cold stung every inch of my skin. “Ranger’s frozen!” Alibaba said to someone in the room with her. “He can’t move!” 

I tried in vain to fight back, but I couldn’t reach my gun, and Odysseus wouldn’t respond to my internal pleas. With a familiar smirk, the cognitive Yusuke flourished his blade and swaggered toward me. Experimentally, he held the blade to my neck, and when I found myself unable to resist, he pulled back for a moment before preparing to strike. 

I winced as his sword approached my body. Suddenly, I was wrapped in pain, but it was a completely different sensation than I had expected. Instead of the pang of steel, I felt the searing heat of flames dancing on my skin. They hurt. They hurt more than I could stand, but in that moment, I could move again. I yanked my body from its icy prison and instantly summoned Odysseus, who annihilated the angelic Shadow with a headshot from his rifle. “Die!” I shouted as my Persona immediately turned his gun to the cognitive Yusuke. The artistic gladiator backpedaled in shock but was nonetheless destroyed by a bullet to the chest in the next instant. 

With the fight over, I fell to my knees in pain and fatigue. I glanced around for the source of the flames, but all I caught was a glimpse of a figure darting away from one of the arena’s open gates.  _ That fire… Was it the other Metaverse user?  _

“Usami!” I ran to the sleeping rabbit and shook her awake. 

“Huh? What?” she stammered. 

“It’s Paradise Lost! We have to go after them!” I insisted. 

“Okay!” Usami agreed with a confused expression. 

I darted toward the open gate where I’d seen the mysterious figure and found myself at a crossroads. “Alibaba, which way did they go?” I asked in desperation. 

“Ranger, wait!” Alibaba insisted. “I managed to get the Meta-Nav on Fox’s handbook!” 

“What?” I asked as I pulled my handbook from my pocket. 

Cassim had reentered the room and was taking her place at Alibaba’s side. “I was able to procure the necessary servers,” Cassim shared, “at least for the time being.” 

“The rogue Metaverse user went right,” Alibaba told me, “but the Phantom Thieves are entering the Palace right now. They’re farther to the left. This might be your only chance to escape.” 

“Dammit!” I cursed. More than anything, I wanted to know more about this interloper, but the Phantom Thieves wouldn’t wait for me. As far as they knew, I’d been executed. “Alright, guide me to the Phantom Thieves,” I requested. 

After dashing to the left, I followed Alibaba’s instructions to navigate the labyrinthine halls. In my haste, I alerted a group of guards that began chasing me through the stone maze. “You don’t have time to fight them!” Morgiana urged. “Just keep running!” 

“I don’t suppose there’s another pit!” I shouted back as I turned to see that the clamoring Shadows were gaining on me. 

“No, nothing, you’ll just have to run faster!” Alibaba replied. 

“I’ll hold them off!” Usami offered as the cartoonish rabbit turned around and summoned her wand. 

“What, no!” I protested as I stalled for a moment. “You said yourself you can’t do much of anything!” 

“I can buy you some time!” Usami insisted. “Hurry! Get to your friends!” 

“Ranger, you have to go,” Morgiana agreed. “She’s just a cognition. Don’t worry about her.” 

I clenched my teeth and continued my sprint through the halls as Usami leapt into the fray of Shadows. “They’re just up ahead!” Alibaba reported after I turned around a few more corners. 

Past the next corner, I came to a set of iron bars that blocked the hall. I gripped the bars with my hands and looked through the blockade to see the Phantom Thieves. Joker, Fox, and Mona were standing alongside Reiko and Takamaru. The five of them were surrounded by a group of Shadowy guards, one of which was the menacing charioteer that had chased me before. “Five strong enemies!” Mona reported as the Shadows melted down and reappeared in their monstrous forms. “We just have to take them one at a time!” 

Two of the Shadows took the form of nude women whose gray skin featured patches of stony scales. The creatures had yellow eyes and black hair, and a similarly-colored serpent was draped over each of their bodies. The charioteer, meanwhile, transformed into a large, green monster. Its body was disturbingly phallic, and a grotesque, red mouth gaped open beneath its head’s tip. Four arms with clawed hands protruded from the sides of its body, from the back of which grew a group of creepy tentacles. The beast was carried by a golden, four-wheeled chariot whose front was emblazoned with a skull, and a plethora of razor-sharp blades protruded past its front wheels. The remaining two Shadows took the form of green slimes shaped like the phallic tip of the charioteer’s head. 

“This one…” Mona analyzed as he observed the feminine Shadows, “is weak to fire!” 

“Zaou-Gongen!” Joker cried as he summoned his masculine, knife-wielding Persona, who annihilated one of the feminine Shadows with a burst of flames. “Ace, take over!” 

“Fly, Icarus!” Takamaru (apparently codenamed Ace) beckoned as he high-fived Joker before summoning his aerial Persona. The ethereal plane launched a blast of fire at one of the effeminate Shadows, who was knocked down as a result. “Fox, it’s all you!” Ace called before high-fiving the Ultimate Artist. 

“Acknowledged!” Fox summoned his blue-skinned Persona and ordered, “Crush them, Kamu Susano-o!” The air froze in place around the remaining Shadows and subsequently shattered as the snap of cold disintegrated the pair of slimes and noticeably wounded the others. 

The serpentine Shadow returned to its feet and conjured a blazing firestorm that engulfed the Phantom Thieves. Fox was knocked onto the ground by the attack, and Ace’s clothes caught fire. “Ace is burning!” Mona observed as the Ultimate Pilot shouted and frantically patted the flames on his clothing. “Someone, put him out!” 

“Shakespeare!” Reiko, now wearing a white mask, called as her crossdressing Persona appeared beside her. Her other self drew his quill through the air, and the flames around her boyfriend were magically extinguished. 

“Thanks, Blanch!” Ace breathed with a sigh of relief. 

“I am thou!” Fox declared as he returned to his feet, and a wave of energy surrounded his party. 

The phallic charioteer charged forward at the group with its penal head pointed forward, but the Phantom Thieves narrowly avoided the charge by darting in all directions. Ace summoned his Persona and turned back toward the serpentine Shadow. “Carpet bomb!” he shouted as another blast of flames eliminated the effeminate Shadow. “Joker, take point!” he encouraged. 

“Odin!” Joker cried as a new Persona materialized at his side. This one resembled a humanoid with violet skin covered by a white cloth. His left eye was covered by a leathery patch, and his right was completely white. He wore a golden helm with a pair of towering horns over his stern countenance, and he carried a silver spear. The Persona summoned a colossal bolt of lightning down onto the green charioteer, which crashed into a wall before slowly fading away. 

“Guys!” I shouted through the bars, but at that moment, something grabbed me from behind. Pitch-black snakes wrapped around my head to cover my mouth, and they slithered around my body to bind my limbs. 

I turned my neck enough to come face to face with Hachise’s Shadow, whose hairless head was the source of the umbral serpents. I had been so entranced by the battle that I hadn’t noticed her approach. “Now, now, Galey, you don’t belong with them, not anymore. You belong to me now.” 

“Ranger!” a myriad of voices called from my handbook as I struggled helplessly against my bindings. The snake around my neck tightened its grip until I couldn’t breathe. My vision started to blur as I lost oxygen, but I barely caught a glimpse of the Phantom Thieves dashing down a different hall before I lost consciousness. 

I woke up in a dark room blocked by an iron portcullis. Stone covered every inch of my face, or maybe my body and clothes had become stone. I couldn’t feel anything to tell. I couldn’t turn my head, but I could glance from side to side, and I beheld a grisly collection. Stone effigies of Hifumi, Kagami, Shiro, Emiko, Haruki, Charlotte, Ann, Lucille, Kari, and Kudo-sensei stood trapped in agonized postures. Effigies of a young woman and fifteen other teenagers lay strewn throughout the room as well. “There we go,” Hachise’s Shadow hissed from just beyond the portcullis, “right where you belong.” 

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t respond. I could only watch. 

“Teehee, that expression is so cute, Galey,” Hachise’s Shadow giggled before departing. “See ya!” 

Seconds became minutes. Minutes became hours. For all I could tell, the hours became days. The silence deafened me. The numbness was blinding. I’m sure I spent hours in contemplation, but I couldn’t remember each thought as soon as it left. The agony was finally broken by the sudden appearance of an intruder: Monokuma. 

“Oof!” The cartoonish headmaster fell from the ceiling and plopped face-first onto the floor before pushing himself to his feet, brushing himself off, and waddling over to me. “A body has been discovered! Everyone, please gather on the deck of the  _ S.S. Titanokuma-A _ ! After a certain amount of time, which you may use however you like, the  **class trial** will begin!” 

Suddenly, the stone around my face shattered. I gasped for air. I hadn’t felt the need to breathe while I had been petrified, but the sensation was life-saving. “Alibaba,” I said, hoping the Phangirls could hear me through my handbook, “what’s up with this cognitive Monokuma?” 

“Oh, I’m no cognition!” Monokuma assured me. “I’m the genuine article! I couldn’t very well run this killing game if I couldn’t see what was happening in this world too, now could I? What if someone were to commit a murder in here?” 

“What the hell are you?” I asked through gritted teeth. 

“I told you already, didn’t I? I am your new  _ headmaster _ ,” Monokuma chortled. “Now, you’ve been a  _ bear _ y bad boy. You escaped your punishment to go gallivanting through the Metaverse.” 

“So, you’re here to finish the job?” I spat. 

“Actually, I’m here to give you a choice,” the self-proclaimed headmaster offered. “Leaving you to rot here is just as fitting a punishment as the one I had prepared,” Monokuma noted, “but as far as I’m concerned, the last motive is still in effect. You just have to admit you killed Haruki, and I’ll give you a pass.” 

“But I’m not the one who killed him!” I shouted. 

“If that’s what you think, you’re free to stay here,” Monokuma snickered, “but as I said, there’s already been another murder. If you miss the trial, you’ll be breaking the rules, and then you’ll  _ definitely  _ be punished.” 

“Fine, whatever, I killed Haruki,” I said with a grimace. 

“That doesn’t sound like a confession to me,” Monokuma argued. 

“I get it, okay!” I shouted back. “I get it! I’m the one who fed him the poisoned food! If it weren’t for me, Haruki might still be alive! Hachise wouldn’t have poisoned him herself for fear of being executed, and maybe Ren would have listened when Haruki said he didn’t want any food. If it were someone besides me, he could be alive right now. I did it. I’m the one who killed him.” 

“Puhuhu, that’s more like it,” Monokuma said with an eerie grimace. “In that case, you’re free to go.” The stone around the rest of my body crumbled away. “I’ve updated your Meta-Nav to allow you to return to the real world. Of course, I cut off those pesky hackers while I was at it, but you shouldn’t concern yourself with them. Focus your attention on the killing game if you want to survive the next trial! Let’s give it everything we’ve got!” 

As quickly as he had appeared, Monokuma vanished. I brushed the flecks of stone from my clothes before opening the Metaverse Navigator on my e-Handbook. There was no sign of Alibaba and her thieves, but it responded when I tapped on the screen. “Returning to real world. Thank you for your hard work.”


	12. Chapter 5: Paradise Lost @ Sea - Deadly Life

Upon returning to the real world, I found myself in the Ultimate Forensic Criminalist's lab. The lab was empty, and I noticed the map on my e-Handbook was disabled when I checked. That was as clear an indicator as any. The investigation for the next murder was already in progress. I shuddered at the thought of who the victim could be. On top of that, I had no clue how to explain my absence, but I was getting nowhere by standing here hesitating. 

With a deep breath, I exited the lab into the hallway of the third floor. I could hear shouting in the infirmary next door, so I decided to step inside. A pair of confused faces turned to me. Hachise and Noise fell silent. The Ultimate Mathematician’s pierced mouth fell agape, and Hachise held her hand over her mouth as she gasped before using her inhaler. “G-Galey!” she stammered. She started to reach out to me, but she hesitated and then began to step back. 

“You son of a bitch,” Noise growled, “you explain every goddamn thing right the fuck now!” Noise approached me threateningly and held me against the wall by the collar of my shirt. 

“I-I was hiding!” I stuttered as I found myself at a loss for words. “I can give you the details later, but right now, I don’t know what’s going on! I heard the body discovery announcement, but—”

I looked past Noise to see one of the infirmary’s beds was occupied by the body of Miaya Gekkogahara. The Ultimate Therapist lay motionless beneath the baby blue covers. Her eyes were closed, and her face looked unnaturally peaceful. All manner of medical equipment had been piled at her bedside, and I could see what looked like bloodstains dripping from beneath the covers around her feet. 

“She’s alive,” Hachise assured me when she noticed the look in my eyes. “It doesn’t look good, but she’s alive.” 

“Please, tell me what happened,” I pleaded with Noise. 

The Ultimate Mathematician bit his lip and then dropped me. “She saved me.” 

“You’ve missed quite a bit,” Hachise began. “We found the Ultimate Pilot's lab, and Monokuma got rid of the rule preventing us from leaving. Takamaru flew off to scout around the boat, but…” 

“He fuckin’  _ crashed _ !” Noise yelled as he slammed his fist into the wall next to me. “It should’ve been me, but that acute bitch just had to push me down the goddamn staircase!” 

“Takamaru…” I started “He crashed?” 

“We recovered his body from the wreckage,” Hachise explained, “or what was left of it. Mia didn’t get hit directly, but she’s not waking up. I’m doing everything I can for her, but I haven’t had time to investigate. If we don’t find out what caused the crash, we’re all—” 

“Like hell!” Noise shouted. “Don’t act like this shit had nothin’ to do with you! This algorithm has your name written all over it, and I ain’t leavin’ ‘til I make sure you don’t get Miaya killed too!” 

“I’ll look around,” I offered. “Where should I start?” 

“Plane crashed on the deck by the stairs,” Noise sighed. “I don’t think there’s anything left, but it might be worth another look.” 

“The Ultimate Pilot's lab is two floors down,” Hachise offered. “It’s possible there’s a clue to what caused the crash there.” 

I decided to start by investigating the crash directly. Making my way to the deck, I found a grisly sight: metal burning amidst the ruins of what used to be a single-person aircraft. To the side, I saw Reiko on her knees staring down at a cloth that had been draped over a body, presumably her boyfriend’s. “Gale,” she said in disbelief when she noticed my approach. 

“I’ve been hiding in the Metaverse,” I explained briefly. “I’m guessing the Phantom Thieves told you about it after the last trial?” 

“Yeah,” Reiko said softly, “it’s good to see you.” Her gaze returned to the cloth. 

“Reiko, I can’t begin to imagine how hard this is,” I confessed, “but can you tell me what happened? I’m completely out of the loop. Anything you know could help.” 

“We planned to use the plane to do recon around the ship,” Reiko began in a solemn tone. “Noise plotted a route. Miaya installed the computer from Pres’s lab as an on-board computer for Takamaru’s convenience and communication. She and Noise were supposed to stay in touch with him from his lab while Ren, Yusuke, and I kept a lookout from the deck, and Hachise distracted Monokuma in case his motive about letting us leave had some kind of catch. 

“Noise said the communication was choppy, but Takamaru seemed to think something was wrong, so Miaya told him to come back. Noise and Miaya ran to the deck. Takamaru was flying toward the opening leading to the hangar, but he pulled up. Then, the plane dove into the ship. One second, he was in the air. The next, he was crashing straight into the boat. We were watching with binoculars, and from the outside, everything looked fine until just before he crashed.” 

“This might sound dumb, but there’s no way Takamaru would just crash, right?” I asked. 

“No, that’s impossible,” Reiko insisted. “He doesn’t—didn’t—make those kinds of mistakes. Someone must’ve sabotaged the plane somehow, but any evidence of that was destroyed by the crash.” 

“You said Miaya installed the plane’s on-board computer. Did anyone else work on the plane before it took off?” I inquired. 

“Not as far as we know,” Reiko answered, “but it’s not like we’ve been keeping tabs on everyone. What gets me is that Takamaru did a safety check on everything immediately before taking off. If someone had tampered with the plane, I was sure he’d notice. That’s why I wasn’t concerned about tampering at the time. If only I’d—”

“If Takamaru hadn’t noticed, I don’t think you could’ve,” I interrupted. “Sorry,” I apologized immediately, “that probably came out wrong.” 

“No, you’re right,” Reiko agreed. “It’s still too dangerous to rifle through the wreckage. We don’t have any fire extinguishers, but I’m going to stay here in case the flames die down before the trial.” 

“Okay,” I acknowledged, “I’m going to check the Ultimate Pilot's lab for signs of foul play.” 

I rushed downstairs past the fourth floor into uncharted territory. I saw Ren and Yusuke climbing the stairs as I descended. “Gale!” Yusuke exclaimed. “Is that truly you?” 

“I escaped into Hachise’s Palace,” I explained briefly. 

“I told you guys I heard something!” Morgana mewled as the cat poked his head out of Ren’s bag. 

“We have a lot to talk about,” I started, “but for now I’m here because Monokuma let me off the hook thanks to the last motive. Reiko and the others got me up to speed, but I’m still pretty behind. I need to investigate the Ultimate Pilot's—”

*Ding dong, dong ding*

“I’m so bored you could surf me!” Monokuma’s voice announced through a nearby monitor. “That means it’s time for the class trial! Please proceed through the red door on the deck of the  _ S.S. Titanokuma-A  _ for the proceedings!” 

“Crap,” I cursed under my breath with the realization that my time was up. I’d just have to work with what I had and what the others knew. The Phantom Thieves and I ascended the steps of the  _ S.S. Titanokuma-A  _ and met our classmates on the deck. Hachise, Noise, and Reiko waited for us by the red door. The three were oddly quiet, and they eyed me with mixed looks. 

The six of us stepped silently through the door when the crimson threshold opened. The elevator’s creaking descent offered some reprieve from the awkward silence that consumed us. Takamaru was dead. The Ultimate Pilot had crashed, and Monokuma declared the incident a murder. Could it really have been an accident? What reason could anyone have to sabotage his plane, and how did their sabotage fly under the radar of Takamaru’s inspection? 

My internal questions were interrupted when the elevator ground to a halt. As the heavy doors opened, the six of us returned to our podiums. Hifumi, Kagami, Shiro, Emiko, Charlotte, Ann, Kari, Haruki, and now Takamaru—for the first time, the crossed-out effigies of our deceased classmates outnumbered the living students in the trial. Of course, I felt the weight of Lucille’s absence as well, even though her podium was now occupied. 

“Let’s begin with a basic explanation of the class trial,” Monokuma recited. “Your votes will determine the results. If you can figure out ‘whodunnit,’ only the blackened will receive punishment, but if you pick the wrong one… then I’ll punish everyone  _ besides  _ the blackened, and the one that deceived everyone else will graduate!”

“What about Miaya?” Noise asked. “She’s in no condition to be here, but the rules…” 

“Won’t Mia be punished if she can’t attend?” Hachise asked in a worried tone. 

“Puhuhu, fear not!” Monokuma assured us. “I’ve pre _ bear _ ed just the thing!” 

Then, a sliding sound drew our attention to Miaya’s empty podium. The circular stand accompanying the podium opened, and a small platform rose from beneath it. Atop the platform was a strange stuffed animal, not unlike Usami. However, the creature seemed to have been altered to more closely resemble Monokuma. Her pinkish-white body was now divided into two parts: one her usual color and the other a brighter pink. The pinker half of the creature had a red eye, and her rabbit-like ear on that side flopped downward. Her magical-girl garments had been replaced with a diaper, over the top of which poked an x-shaped bellybutton like Monokuma’s, and her usual pink bow had been replaced with a beige one. 

“Hi, everyone!” the stuffed rabbit greeted us. 

“U-Usami?” Reiko asked in a flabbergasted voice. 

“Not exactly!” Monokuma corrected. “I tried making an Usami to stand in for the Ultimate Therapist at first, but her design was so lovey-dovey-wuvey that I  _ puked  _ all over it and had to start over! So, I took some creative liberties and remade her in my glorious image! Everyone, meet my new little sister, Monomi!” 

“Who said I was your little sister?” Monomi argued back with a pout. 

“I did!” Monokuma retaliated bluntly. “Miaya Gekkogahara may be bedridden, but she’s woken up, so I altered the special app from her Ultimate Research Lab to allow her to control Monomi the same way she controls Usami on her e-Handbook! Consider Monomi to be Miaya’s stand-in for this trial.” 

“That thing’s fuckin’ creepy no matter how you consider it,” Noise sighed, “but it beats her gettin’ executed.” 

“Well, with that out of the way, let’s get this show on the road!” Monokuma decreed from his judicial chair over the trial grounds. With our ranks so thinned, I had to turn my head from side to side to see my classmates’ expressions. As the others did the same, the room seemed to be spinning as our gazes shifted. 

Yusuke: Since Gale was absent for the majority of these events, I suggest we begin by reviewing a summary of what transpired. 

Ren: Works for me. 

Noise: Fine, but let’s keep it short. 

Reiko: We spent the day preparing for Takamaru’s flight in the plane from the Ultimate Pilot's lab. 

Noise:  **Takamaru was training** with the flight sim in the arcade while I plotted a route for him. 

Monomi:  **I was installing the computer** from Kari’s lab as an on-board computer for the plane. 

Reiko: Everyone else helped me prepare Takamaru’s parachute and other equipment for the flight. 

Yusuke: When the time came,  **we divided into three teams** . 

Noise: Miaya and I used her app to stay in touch with the plane’s on-board computer from Takamaru’s lab. 

Hachise:  **I was distracting Monokuma** during the flight! 

Reiko: Everyone else was on deck with me, keeping an eye on things from up there. 

Noise: Big surprise,  **Hachise’s the 1 without an alibi** for the time of death. 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Hachise: Aww, Galey, so you did come to my rescue? 

Gale: Don’t call me that, but it does sound like Hachise has an alibi. If she was distracting Monokuma, that means Monokuma can verify her whereabouts, right? 

Monokuma: I feel like that  **might be cheating** , but yes, I can technically verify Hachise’s alibi. 

Monomi: That reminds me. How did you distract Monokuma anyway? 

Hachise: I challenged him to a dance-off in the new room! 

Monokuma: Hahaha! I totally kicked her butt, too! 

Noise: Huh,  **we asked you** to distract him cuz you’re good at startin’ shit, not cuz you can dance, moron. 

Yusuke: If dancing were the only prerequisite, perhaps  **I would have provided** a superior diversion. 

Ren: Tag-team dance-off, anyone? 

Monomi: But then who would be on Monokuma’s team? 

Reiko: Can we please focus, people? 

Hachise: Right, even if I didn’t have an alibi, what could I have done at the time of death? 

Hachise:  **I couldn’t have exactly brought down a plane** from inside the boat. 

**_Gale: I agree with that!_ **

Hachise: My Galey—erm, my Gale—comes to my rescue yet again! 

Gale: Just “Gale,” please, but you’re right. We all agree there’s no way Takamaru’s crash was a mistake on his part, right? 

Yusuke: He was the Ultimate Pilot, after all. 

Gale: And, Reiko, nothing happened outside the plane to cause the crash, right? 

Reiko: No, we couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. 

Gale: Then if someone caused Takamaru’s crash, they must have tampered with the plane before takeoff. 

Noise: Lot of fuckin’ hoops just to get to sabotage. I’m pretty sure we’d all figured that shit out by now. 

Reiko: Since it seems like  **no one else is going to do it** , I’ll go ahead and say it. 

Reiko: Miaya is the person most likely to have tampered with the plane. 

Monomi: Huh? Why me? 

Yusuke: While I am loath to accuse her, her installation of the on-board computer could have provided sufficient opportunity for sabotage. 

Monomi: I didn’t do it! I don’t even know enough about planes to mess one up! 

Hachise: But you knew enough to install the computer! 

Monomi:  **I just connected the computer** to the plane’s battery and radio! 

Monomi: Most of the work went into setting up the voice messaging software between the computer and my handbook! 

Monomi: That has nothing to do with the plane’s aerodynamics! 

Yusuke: Furthermore, if  **she had tampered with the aircraft** , why did Takamaru’s inspections not preemptively discover the malfunction? 

Noise: If  **something in the plane screwed up** , it must’ve screwed up after takeoff. 

Yusuke: I fail to see how anyone could cause such a thing from the boat, however. 

Hachise: Could Miaya have used the computer to remotely trigger a malfunction after takeoff? 

Reiko: You did say the computer was connected to the battery. If you killed the battery mid-flight,  **that could cause the crash** . 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Reiko: How would you know? 

Gale: Where was Takamaru supposed to land the plane? 

Monomi: Um, the Ultimate Pilot's lab is like a hangar that opens to the outside through the hull of the boat. He would have flown back in there. 

Gale: But he crashed onto the deck, which is like the roof of the ship. 

Noise: Get to the fuckin’ coordinate. 

Gale: If the plane suddenly died as it was flying toward the side of the ship, why would Takamaru pull up and then dive down into the ship? Wouldn’t he have hit the side of the ship or gone into the water?

Reiko: Then maybe the computer didn’t kill the battery! Maybe it hijacked the controls! 

Hachise: The plane’s controls were pretty analog. I don’t think you could use a remote connection to a desktop computer to steer it. 

Reiko: Who cares if we don’t know how? The computer is the only thing out of place on the plane! Takamaru’s inspection was flawless! 

Monomi: Reiko…

Gale: Instead of pointing fingers at Miaya, why don’t we take a step back? Can we prove no one besides her and Takamaru worked on the plane? 

Reiko: No, I didn’t think to use the green tape on the lab’s door or anything… 

Monomi: No one has been collecting map data since Kari passed. 

Hachise: We were careless because we assumed Takamaru’s inspections would find anything. 

Noise: Besides, why would we suspect foul play? Why the fuck would anyone want to stop us from scouting? That plane was our best shot out of here. 

Yusuke: Indeed, there would appear to be no discernable motive. 

Gale: No motive, huh… 

_ No, that’s not true. I can think of one person who would definitely have a motive.  _

Gale:  **Monokuma** . 

Monokuma: Yes? 

Gale: You’re the only one with a motive to kill Takamaru. 

Monokuma: Puhuhu, have you forgotten? The rules prevent me from participating in a murder directly! I punish students who misbehave, but we wouldn’t be having this trial if this were a simple case of punishment. 

Monomi: But you stand to gain the most from keeping us here. 

Hachise: If Monokuma didn’t want us leaving, why’d he get rid of the first rule as the motive in the first place? 

Gale: That’s just it, though. Monokuma wouldn’t need to kill Takamaru directly. He could intervene without getting his paws dirty. 

Reiko: Well, talk! How would he do that? 

Gale:  **The spy** . 

Yusuke: You are referring to the motive he offered prior to Shiro’s murder, correct? 

Gale: Yeah, if Monokuma was telling the truth, one of us has been in league with him from the beginning. 

Hachise: If the spy endorses the killing game, they would definitely have a motive to stop Takamaru’s scouting mission short. 

Noise: I hate to believe that bastard, but he ain’t lied to us yet, and that does seem to be the only reason to kill Takamaru. 

Yusuke: I still do not believe we should discount the possibility that the killer simply desired to win the game and escape the ship. 

Monomi: Even so,  **the spy is our only lead** so far… 

Noise: Regardless of whether they crashed the plane, I for 1 think it’s worth tryin’ to figure out who the spy is. 

Ren:  **Hachise is pretty suspicious** … 

Hachise: Gee, thanks, and aren’t you just the  _ picture  _ of trustworthiness, Mr. Phantom Thief? 

Hachise: Why don’t you remind us where you vanish to when you and your friends disappear from the map? 

Reiko: Don’t try to point the finger now, bitch! 

Reiko: Let’s not forget  **you orchestrated the last murder** before we even had a motive! 

Reiko: As far as I’m concerned,  **the spy can only be you** ! 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Reiko: Why are you defending her when she’s obviously in league with that psychotic bear? 

Gale: Hachise isn’t blameless, but I don’t think she’s the spy. When Monokuma gave us the motive, he said one of the  _ fourteen  _ of us still alive on the boat was a spy. That was before Hachise transferred over, so those fourteen would include Shiro, Emiko, Charlotte, Ann, Lucille, Kari, Haruki, Takamaru, Reiko, Noise, Ren, Yusuke, Miaya, and me. 

**_Reiko: I won’t let you upstage me!_ **

Reiko’s voice cracked as she interjected. She seemed to be slowly losing the composure she’d maintained so far. 

Reiko: I don’t know what the hell’s gotten into you, Gale. 

Reiko: Hachise nearly killed you, and now you’re sticking up for her? 

Reiko: Let’s not forget she was the blackened in her own killing game. 

Reiko: That bitch will kill all of us if we let her get away with it! 

Gale: I’m not saying Hachise is blameless, but that doesn’t change what Monokuma told us. 

Gale: If the spy is one of those fourteen, that doesn’t include Hachise. 

Gale: Besides, how would she have spied on us at the beginning? 

Gale: It makes more sense if the spy has been with us from the start. 

Reiko: Fine, let’s say Monokuma’s telling the truth. 

Reiko: I don’t see why we should believe him about his own agent, but let’s say we do. 

Reiko: That doesn’t prove that  **Hachise isn’t the spy** . 

Reiko: Rather, that doesn’t prove  **Hachise isn’t** **_a_ ** **spy** . 

Reiko: There’s no reason there can only be one spy. 

Reiko: Even if there was only one on the ship when Monokuma gave the motive… 

Reiko: Doesn’t it make sense to have at least one spy per ship? 

Reiko: I think  **it would be stranger** to only have one spy when there are two ships. 

Reiko: In that case, Haruki was most likely the spy for Class A.

Reiko: Meanwhile,  **Hachise is Monokuma’s agent** from Class B. 

Reiko:  **She won the killing game** aboard the  _ S.S. Titanokuma-B _ , right? 

Reiko: Then why didn’t she “graduate” as Monokuma calls it? 

Reiko: Shouldn’t she be free? And yet here she is in another killing game. 

Reiko: She’s only participating in this game because  **she’s in league with Monokuma** ! 

**_Hachise: I’ll cut off your head._ **

Reiko: What did you say, bitch? 

Hachise: Oopsie, sorry, did I say that out loud? 

Noise: Sure fuckin’ did. 

Hachise: Well, what I meant to say was, “Don’t you dare put words in my mouth, you stupid, self-righteous whore.” 

Hachise: How’s that? 

Reiko: Well, by all means, put the words in your own mouth then. 

Reiko: Why are you here on this boat instead of sunbathing back home? 

Reiko: I bet Japan’s climate would’ve been much better for you than this ship has been. 

Hachise: Oh my, you’re right. I didn’t notice how bad this cruise had been for my complexion. 

Hachise: Why, even my eyesight has deteriorated! Thank you so much for letting me know! 

Noise: Cut the bitch-talk, and start sayin’ shit that makes sense. 

Yusuke: Indeed, I believe we would all like to know why you did not graduate, Hachise. 

Monomi: Wasn’t the graduation a lie? Monokuma said he’d let you go free, but  **he just threw you into another killing game** , right? 

Monokuma: Hold on! Is that why none of you believe that you’ll be able to graduate? What a load of bull!  **Hachise had every right to graduate** after her class was executed! 

Monomi: What! What are you saying? 

Hachise: Monokuma gave me a choice. 

Hachise: He said  **I could go back to Japan** and return to Hope’s Peak Academy alone. 

Hachise: Or, I could join your killing game aboard the  _ S.S. Titanokuma-A  _ as a transfer student. 

Hachise: Of course, if I chose the former,  **he would erase all of my memories** of the killing game. 

Hachise: Since none of us remember how we got here in the first place, I believed him. 

Hachise: So, I chose to join the other killing game instead. 

Monomi:  **You joined a second killing game** just to keep your memory? 

Hachise: No, of course not, I’d forget everything in a second if I could. 

Hachise: I agreed to participate in this sick game because it’s my only connection to Monokuma and, more importantly, the mastermind. 

Hachise: If some other sod won this killing game after I graduated, the two of us would survive, sure, but  **we’d have no memory** of what happened. 

Hachise: Everyone else would be declared missing, and  **any evidence would be at the bottom** of the ocean, probably in international waters. 

Hachise: The mastermind would get away with everything. 

Hachise: I stayed because I’m going to get to the bottom of all this. 

Hachise: And I’m going to choke the life out of the mastermind myself. 

Reiko: How very touching, but I didn’t hear a shred of proof anywhere in that story. 

Reiko:  **You still can’t prove anything** ! 

**_Gale: I agree with that!_ **

Reiko: Thank you! 

Gale: No, I agree that there’s no proof. We have no evidence indicating whether Hachise is really working with Monokuma. She could be lying, yeah, but she could just as easily be telling the truth. 

Noise: However, we do have reason to think that 1/14 of those who were aboard this ship after Kagami’s execution is a spy. 

Gale: Exactly, we should start with what we do know and try to uncover that spy first, and depending on who it is, we might get some clues as to whether Hachise is a spy as well. 

Noise: For example, if our class’s spy  𝑎 is Haruki, that means  **this ship’s spy is dead** . 

Noise: But we know at least 1 spy is alive if they killed Takamaru, so that would incriminate the other class’s spy  b . 

Noise: And since Hachise is the only surviving member of Class B, and the current spy is, by definition, surviving, that would incriminate Hachise. 

Yusuke: Did we not already determine that  **Haruki was this ship’s spy?**

Noise: Not necessarily, he was Monokuma’s attacker for that motive, but  **attacker ≠ spy** . 

Reiko: Then we don’t really need to figure out who the spy is. 

Reiko: We just have to prove that the spy isn’t one of us. 

Reiko: That would mean  **it has to be Hachise** . 

Hachise: Easier said than done. 

Yusuke: Aside from Takamaru’s murder and Monokuma’s motive, do we have any other leads about the spy? 

Monomi: Well,  **there is one thing** … 

**_Gale: I agree with that!_ **

Noise: Hang on. Are you talkin’ about what I think you’re talkin’ about?

Gale: Yeah, before she died, Lucille was investigating the spy’s identity. She thought it had something to do with Shiro’s motive for attempted murder since, aside from that, there was no established motive for the case. 

Monomi: Lucille thought there were two possibilities. 

Monomi: First, **the** **spy was someone who couldn’t be killed** , so they had no reason to worry about participating in the killing game. 

Monomi: Second,  **the spy was being threatened** with something worse than death, so participating in the killing game was better by comparison. 

Yusuke: Then it would obviously be the latter, would it not? 

Noise: I’m not so sure. 

Reiko: What do you mean? 

Noise: 0 of us trust Monokuma, right? 

Noise: If  **he threatened a loved 1** or our reputation or something, why would we believe him? 

Noise: More importantly, why would he keep his end of whatever bargain after we died? 

Yusuke: Perhaps you have a point, but the first option is hardly any more reasonable. 

Reiko: Yeah,  **nobody is unkillable** ! 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Reiko: What are you talking about? This isn’t some anime about immortal yakuza. 

Gale: I’m not sure, to be honest, but if Lucille thought it was a real possibility, I’m willing to consider it seriously. Besides, Haruki said so too. He said I was confused because I was mistaking “unkillable” for “immortal,” but it wasn’t impossible for someone to be unkillable. 

Noise: Argh, are we seriously takin’ that damn clown’s nonsense as evidence now? 

Reiko: Like it or not, he and Lucille were two of the most capable in this situation. 

Hachise: “Unkillable,” you say? That makes it pretty obvious, doesn’t it? 

Monomi: Does it? 

Hachise: Yeah, it has to be Gale. 

Gale: You know, I was wondering if we were going to be two for three with you pointing the finger at me. 

Hachise: The poison was an accident, Gale, but you survived. 

Hachise: If you really just cashed in on Monokuma’s motive, why didn’t you do it sooner? 

Hachise: Admit it.  **Monokuma failed** to execute you, and that’s why you’re here. 

Reiko: If  **Gale can survive Monokuma’s execution** , that does make him seem “unkillable.” 

Monomi: If Gale were the spy, why would he point that out to us? 

Hachise: I’m sure  **he has some grand narrative** prepared for everyone. 

Hachise: The Ultimate Adventurer is quite good at storytelling, after all. 

Hachise: If we’re not careful, we’ll all just tag along for the plot he feeds us and vote for whomever he likes. 

Noise: That’s some good shit you’re talkin’ for someone else who survived one of Monokuma’s punishments, Ultimate Survivor. 

Noise: Isn’t bein’ unkillable literally your fuckin’ talent? 

Hachise: Nah-uh, let’s not forget  **we agreed not to start accusing me** until we could prove none of you was also a spy. 

Yusuke: But if  **Gale and Hachise are both spies** , why would they be accusing each other? 

Monomi: Argh! This is making my head hurt! 

Hachise: It’s simple. Gale’s a spy. I’m not. 

Hachise:  **There’s no other explanation** for how he survived his execution! 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Hachise: Then by all means, do tell. 

Yusuke: G-Gale, are you sure this is— 

Gale: It’s fine. They deserve the truth. 

I pulled my e-Handbook from my pocket and opened the Metaverse Navigator. 

Gale: It’s easier if I just show you. 

I looked left and right to Ren, Yusuke, and Reiko. The three of them nodded silently as their expressions became serious. Morgana jumped out of Ren’s backpack and into the adjacent podium, which held the sign bearing Ann’s likeness. I activated the Meta-Nav, and the trial grounds began to distort until reality itself seemed to melt and crumple away around us. 

When the room stabilized, we were now standing atop marble balconies over the arena at the center of Hachise’s Palace. Ren, Yusuke, Reiko, and I were all wearing our Metaversal garments, and Morgana had transformed into his chibi form. Monokuma’s chair now levitated in midair above our balconies. Below us, countless cognitive Monokumas cheered at the arena, where Shadowy guards wearing gladiatorial armor battled for their amusement. 

Noise: What in the hell is this? 

Monomi: These special effects are—

Reiko: They aren’t special effects. This place is real. 

Gale: It’s called a Palace. It’s sort of like an alternate reality. 

Morgana: It forms from distortions in a person’s cognition. More specifically, this is Hachise’s Palace. 

Morgana: She thinks of the trial grounds as a colosseum, so that’s how they appear. 

Noise: Should I ask about the tiny Batman? Is everyone else seein’ this shit? 

Yusuke: These Palaces are how the Phantom Thieves change people’s hearts. 

Monomi: So, when you disappear from the map, you go… 

Ren: Here. 

Hachise: Hahaha-ha-ha-ha-ha! This is incredible! 

Hachise: I had all kinds of theories, but this is beyond everything I imagined! 

Hachise: Brainwashing, blackmail, magic, neurology—all of it was too easy. 

Hachise: The Phantom Thieves use  _ alternate realities  _ to steal people’s hearts! 

Hachise: If I weren’t seeing it for myself, I’d never have believed it! 

Hachise: Hey, Monokuma, you knew about this, right? 

Monokuma: Naturally! I wouldn’t be much of a headmaster if I couldn’t monitor this version of the ship as well as the real one! 

Hachise: Phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal, I feel like I’m losing my mind, but it’s opening up at the same time. This changes everything,  _ literally  _ everything! 

Gale: Well, there you have it. I escaped the execution by coming here, but it doesn’t make me unkillable. 

Gale: I toughed it out here for a little bit until Monokuma confronted me and offered to let me cash in on the last motive. 

Monokuma: Since I know one of you cretins is going to ask me, I’ll just say it. Yes, what Gale is saying is the truth. 

Morgana: Anyway, we can’t stay here. It’s dangerous for Hachise to be in her own Palace like this. 

Morgana: The whole cognition could destabilize. 

Noise: Seriously, you guys are seein’ this dude, right? It’s not just me? 

I pressed the Metaverse Navigator to leave the Palace. 

Meta-Nav: Returning to real world. Thank you for your hard work.

Within moments, the trial grounds returned to normal. Our clothes reverted to their original states, and Morgana was a cat again. 

Gale: Satisfied? 

Hachise: Oh, you never fail to satisfy me, Gale. 

Monomi: Was that phrasing really necessary? 

Morgana: Hey, now that you’ve all been to the Metaverse, you can understand me! 

Morgana: Does that mean I can participate in the trial now? 

Noise: That cat can talk. 

Hachise: Amazing, perhaps this is just a creature from that cognitive reality that appears to us as a cat because we cognate it as a cat. 

Reiko: She catches on a little too quick. 

Monomi: What’s your name, Kitty-Kitty? 

Morgana: I am Morgana, founder and second-in-command of the noble Phantom Thieves! 

Noise: That  _ cat  _ can  _ talk _ ! 

Hachise: Hey, wait a second. Isn’t this adorable thing just the perfect little spy? 

Morgana: What! No! I’m not even part of the game! 

Monokuma: Morgana here is what you might consider a “stowaway.” His presence is purely accidental and  _ bear _ y annoying. 

Noise: Hold it! Hold on! Everyone, shut up! 

Monomi: What is it, Noise? 

Noise: I just had an idea. It’s something feasible, nothing about alternate realities or talking cats or any of that bullshit. 

Reiko: Alright, go for it. 

Noise: What if the spy was Takamaru? 

Reiko: … 

Monomi: Huh? He can’t be unkillable, though! He’s already… 

Noise: The unkillable thing is just Lucille’s theory. Let’s take a step back and reevaluate the whole equation. 

Noise: Takamaru was killed because his plane crashed into the ship. 

Noise: We know  **the spy has a solid motive** to kill him. 

Noise: But, we don’t think any of us could’ve fucked with the plane without him noticing. 

Noise: So, if none of us could’ve caused the crash, the only person who could… 

Monomi: N-Noise, are you saying  **Takamaru k-killed himself** ? 

Reiko: You’re full of shit! 

Yusuke: If his goal were merely to prevent our departure, could he not have just as easily said that  **the plane was inoperable** ? 

Yusuke: We would have had little choice but to take his word on the matter. 

Noise: I’m not gonna act like I get his reasoning, but think about it! 

Noise: As far as people who  _ could’ve  _ sabotaged the plane,  **he’s the 1st** in the set! 

Noise: Hell, he wouldn’t have even needed to sabotage the plane. He could’ve just declined his altitude a little. 

Noise: If this was all his doing, that would explain why he didn't bail, too! 

Noise: Why else wouldn't the guy use his parachute when shit started headin' south? 

Reiko: You need to stop talking right the fuck now, Noise! 

Noise: Hey, don’t get pissed at me just cuz  **I’m makin’ sense** ! 

Reiko: You’re not! You’re not making any sense! I knew Takamaru better than anyone! 

Reiko: If he were the spy, there is literally no way he could’ve hidden that from me! 

Hachise: I think  **you’re a little too emotionally invested** to have a say here. 

Reiko: You bet your bitch-ass I’m emotionally invested! 

Noise:  **Only 8 of us were alive** before Takamaru crashed!  **He’s the only 1** it could be! 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Noise: Monokuma said the damn cat doesn’t count! 

Morgana: Hey! I’m still here, y’know! 

Gale: I’m not talking about Morgana. 

Hachise: Oh? Then who do you mean? 

Gale: Monokuma, counting the ones who’ve died so far, are the sixteen students in this killing game the only ones aboard this ship? 

Monokuma: Well, you also have to consider Hachise, Shigekazu Kudo, Morgana, and me. 

Monokuma: However, including those four and the sixteen students of Class A, there have only been twenty people aboard the  _ S.S. Titanokuma-A _ ! And, yes, the Palaces of the students on this ship do count as “aboard the ship” as well. 

Gale: Then something is definitely fishy. 

Yusuke: Please elaborate. 

Gale: When I was in Hachise’s Palace, I saw somebody. I couldn’t really tell what they looked like, but I was able to confirm that Ren and Yusuke were in the real world, so I don’t think it was either of them. 

Noise: If you’re tellin’ the truth, that just leaves me, Hachise, Miaya, Reiko, and Takamaru. 

Hachise: Reiko, you knew about this other dimension before today, didn’t you? 

Reiko: Yeah, I’ve only been there a couple times, though. Takamaru and I stumbled in by accident and were trying to help out the Phantom Thieves. 

Hachise: Well, if you won’t admit it was you, it’s starting to sound like Takamaru might be the spy, after all. 

Hachise: He knew about the “Palace” or whatever, and what Gale saw just reeks of espionage! 

Gale: I don’t know if that person was the spy or not, but seeing them made me wonder if there might be someone besides us on the ship… 

Yusuke: I must say I am rather curious about this mystery Palace dweller… 

Monomi: Do they necessarily need to be one of us? 

Noise: Well, there’s nobody else on the ship, right? 

Monomi: I was just thinking. If the spy isn’t one of us and isn’t Takamaru, could they be one of our classmates who died? 

Hachise: That begs the question. Just because  **someone’s dead in this reality** , are they also dead in that other dimension? 

Morgana: Yes, sadly,  **death there is just as permanent** as death here. 

Monomi: That’s not what I meant. 

Monomi:  **Gale used the Metaverse to survive** when we thought he was dead, right? 

Monomi: Could someone else have done the same thing? 

Noise: We saw all the other bodies, though, right? 

Monomi: Well, yeah, but… 

Monomi: It’s just that, according to Monokuma, one of those fourteen students who was alive when the motive was given was the spy. 

Monomi: And  **we’re only considering half** of them… 

**_Gale: I agree with that!_ **

Reiko: Well, if we can prove that one of the deceased students was the spy from Class A, that proves that Hachise is the spy from Class B who killed Takamaru, right? 

Gale: No, that’s not what I’m getting at, but Miaya could be onto something. If the spy were dead, that would make them  _ someone who can’t be killed _ . 

Yusuke: Of course! You cannot kill someone that has already been killed!

Noise: How the fuck could they spy on us if they’re dead? Don’t tell me you’re gonna start spoutin’ some occult shit about ghosts! 

Gale: What if we just  _ assumed  _ the spy was dead? Then, we couldn’t kill them, and they’d have nothing to worry about from the killing game. Without considering the bodies, can we actually prove that no one we assumed was dead is still living in hiding aboard the ship? 

Hachise: We’re getting spooky now, bitches! 

Reiko: Well, if the spy is just another participant,  **they’d still have to follow the rules** , right? 

Yusuke: The rules dictate that students must participate in the class trial. 

Yusuke: When we assumed  **Hachise was deceased** , she nearly violated that rule, but she arrived partway through. 

Noise:  **There ain’t really anywhere to hide** in this room, so I’m pretty sure we’d’ve noticed if someone we thought was dead suddenly showed up. 

Monomi: There is also the rule about sleeping in the dormitory. 

Noise: Yeah, the dead people’s dorm rooms are sealed off. 

Reiko: What about the infirmary? They can sleep there too. 

Monomi: That part was only added recently, so it doesn’t really help us unless  **the spy is Haruki** . 

Reiko: Haruki is definitely the most suspicious already. 

Hachise: You’re all thinking too hard. 

Hachise:  **The spy could just take off the tape** and replace it when they left the room. 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Hachise: Why? It’s just tape. I’m sure Monokuma has plenty. 

Gale: No, according to Monokuma, that tape works like Reiko’s green tape. It doesn’t stick anymore once it’s been peeled off, and he only has enough tape to seal each door once. 

Monokuma: In other words, once a door has been sealed, it can’t be unsealed! 

Hachise: Why should we trust anything you say? 

Monomi: If Monokuma would lie like that just to defend the spy, I don’t think he would’ve told us about the spy in the first place… 

Gale: Lucille said the same thing. Monokuma just thinks of the spy as a way to make the killing game more interesting. 

Hachise: Let’s say I believe this crap about the tape. Who ever said the rules apply to the spy? Monokuma might say they do, but why should we trust him? 

Monokuma: Grr, how many times do I have to say it? The rules apply to the spy just like everyone else! 

Monokuma: …

Monokuma: Mostly… 

Reiko: “Mostly”? 

Yusuke: Define “mostly.” 

Monokuma: I may have possibly, potentially, slightly allowed the spy to break  _ one  _ rule as compensation for their cooperation. 

Yusuke: Then the spy would be permitted to sleep outside the dormitory. 

Noise: Earth to Space Cadet Yusuke, that wouldn’t explain why  **we ain’t seen ‘em** at any trial! 

Morgana: Would going to a Palace owner’s cognition of the trial grounds count as participating? 

Monokuma: Nope!  **Those are different** trial grounds. 

Monokuma: In order to “participate” as the rules dictate, students must be present in  _ these  _ trial grounds. 

Hachise: Then, if the spy really is someone we thought was dead, the rule about participating in class trials has to be the one rule they broke. 

Noise: If  **that’s the 1 rule** , where the fuck did they sleep? 

Monomi: They couldn’t have hidden in one of our rooms with us, could they? 

Yusuke: Perhaps  **there is some sort of “extra” room** . 

**_Gale: I agree with that!_ **

Ren: Where’s that? 

Gale: Reiko, have you ever slept in your own room? 

Reiko: Huh? 

Gale: This whole time, since we’ve been here, you’ve spent every night in Takamaru’s room, haven’t you? 

Reiko: I-I mean… 

Reiko: Yeah, I never slept in my own room. 

Gale: Then the spy could have slept in Reiko’s room, right? That would still be part of the dormitory, and there wouldn’t be anyone in there to find them. 

Yusuke: What about when Haruki was confined to Reiko’s room? 

Monomi: At that time, Haruki’s room would have been unoccupied. 

Monomi: So, they could’ve temporarily switched from Reiko’s room to Haruki’s. 

Hachise: Aren’t you overlooking something pretty obvious?

Hachise: You’re assuming the spy could get into Reiko’s and Haruki’s rooms. 

Reiko: Right, our rooms are locked so only our own handbooks open them. 

Yusuke: Is it possible that the spy’s handbook allowed them access to anyone’s room? 

Monokuma: Nope! Every student’s handbook only opens the door to their own room! 

Gale: … 

Gale: Say that again. 

Monokuma: Um, “every student’s handbook only opens the door to their own room”? 

Gale: That does leave one possibility. 

Letters scrambled around through my mind as I considered a variety of possibilities. Based on Monokuma’s phrasing, that did still leave one option open. 

Gale:  **Shigekazu Kudo** . 

Reiko: Kudo-sensei? 

Gale: Think about it. He was our teacher. Every  _ student’s  _ handbook only opens the door to their own room, but wouldn’t it make sense if the teacher’s handbook could open all of his students' doors? 

Noise: Don’t be a dipshit. He wasn’t part of the 14 Monokuma said included the spy. 

Gale: No, he isn’t the spy, but someone could have taken his handbook. We didn’t consider it until now because we didn’t learn about the handbooks until after he was killed, but if the spy had inside knowledge, they might have known to look for his handbook. 

Noise: That bastard was impossible to pickpocket. Trust me. 

Monomi: Then the spy could have taken Kudo-sensei’s handbook after he was killed… 

Gale: There was a crowd around Kudo-sensei’s body after he died. Could it have been one of them? 

Monomi: The people around his body were Kari, Lucille, Charlotte, Shiro, Noise, and me. 

Noise: I would’ve fuckin’ noticed if some-1 started rifling through Kudo-sensei’s pockets! 

Gale: Who was the last person to leave, or did everyone disperse at once? 

Noise: Nah, we started tricklin’ out after we paid our respects. I was the 2nd-to-last cuz I didn’t want Pres hearin’ any sappy shit I might’ve said in the moment. 

Gale: Then who was the last? 

Noise: Let me think… 

Noise: The only person still there after I left was… 

Noise: Shiro. 

Gale: … 

Monomi: …

Hachise: … 

Reiko: … 

Yusuke: … 

Ren: … 

Monokuma: … 

Noise: … 

Noise:  _ Fuck _ . 

Reiko:  _ Shiro? Shiro  _ was the last person to leave? 

Noise: God- _ fucking _ -dammit. 

Hachise: I never got to meet this Shiro. 

Hachise:  **He was a transfer student** , right? “The Ultimate Moral Compass,” he was called? 

Monomi: Aside from Gale, he was the only one  **none of us knew** at the start of all this. 

Hachise: Well, isn’t that convenient? 

Noise: I am  _ so  _ fuckin’  _ pissed off  _ right now! 

Yusuke: Of the students Miaya listed,  **he is the only one** who also did not know Kudo-sensei prior to this, so why did he stay behind to mourn him? 

Noise: I  _ thought  _ it was cuz of his fuckin’ “Ultimate Moral Compass” bullshit! 

Reiko: Calm down, Noise. This is still just a theory. 

Hachise: “Calm down”? That’s rich coming from you. 

Reiko: Let’s say  **Shiro stole Kudo-sensei’s handbook** after you left.

Reiko: Maybe Shiro could’ve used Kudo-sensei’s handbook to sleep in Haruki’s and my rooms, and maybe he’s missed the trials because that’s the one rule Monokuma let him break. 

Reiko: But none of that changes the fact that we saw his body in the pool. 

Reiko: Kari performed the autopsy herself. There’s no faking that! 

Reiko:  **There aren’t two Shiros** ! 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Hachise: Did Shiro have an evil twin? Kuro Hatori! 

Gale: Not exactly, but it is possible he had a doppelganger. 

Noise: I’m pretty sure a 2nd Shiro would count as a 21st person on the boat. 

Gale: No, the doppelganger doesn’t have to be a  _ person _ . In the Palaces, the Palace owners’ cognitions of other people can appear as, well, people. 

Gale: In Hachise’s Palace, the cognitions look like statues or gladiators because that’s how she cognates us, but in Kari’s Palace, they looked pretty normal. 

Monomi: Kari had a Palace too? 

Ren: We did change her heart, after all. 

Hachise: Can a person’s cognition of someone enter the real world? 

Morgana: No, a cognition is just an image. They’re not real in any sense, so they can’t manifest in the real world. They only exist in Palaces. 

That didn’t make the situation impossible. Maybe a cognition couldn’t come to us, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t be brought to it. 

Gale: Is it possible we were in  **Kari’s Palace?**

Yusuke: Preposterous! Kari’s Palace resembled a prison, and the pool looked absolutely normal! 

Gale: Morgana, you said that the distortions in Kari’s cognition spread after Shiro was killed. Before then, had they spread to the second floor yet? 

Morgana: No, they hadn’t. If you’d entered the Palace from the second floor, it would’ve looked completely normal. 

Reiko: Don’t your clothes change when you enter a Palace, though?

Noise: Yeah, and the talking cat turns into a cartoon, but I didn’t see shit like that. 

Gale: Morgana wasn’t with us in the pool. He was exploring other parts of Kari’s Palace at the time. 

Gale: As for the clothes, maybe they only change if we’re  _ wearing  _ clothes, but we were all in our swimsuits, or maybe they didn’t change because we didn’t know we were in a Palace.

Noise: This is gettin’ fuckin’ weird. You’re sayin’ we were transported to an alternate reality, and it wasn’t Shiro who was killed, but it was Kari’s cognition of him? 

Noise: If that’s true, when did it happen? I don’t remember gettin’ transposed to another dimension! 

I tried to remember every detail of that case. I went through the series of events in my mind. There was only one time when all of us were together on the second floor before Shiro’s murder. 

Gale: I think it was  **when we were in the showers** . It would have been after the real Shiro had left and after Takamaru and Kari had arrived. 

Hachise: That magic navigation app let you transport a bunch of us to my Palace a minute ago, right? 

Hachise: Can it transport people on the other side of a wall? What’s the range? 

Hachise: I wasn’t there for this pool thing, but I’m guessing you weren’t all showering in one room together. 

Hachise: Could Shiro have transported you all after he left the room? 

Morgana: I’m pretty sure  **there would need to be one Meta-Nav** in each room. 

Morgana: It is possible to activate them remotely with malware, so Shiro wouldn’t necessarily need to be in either room with them.

Noise: When the fuck did Shiro install malware on people’s handbooks? 

Hachise: He wouldn’t need to.  **Monokuma can do whatever he wants** to our handbooks remotely. 

Hachise: The rules prevent Monokuma from participating directly in a murder, but there’s nothing saying  **he can’t help the spy** fake his death. 

Reiko: Then it’s possible  **Monokuma activated the Meta-Navs** in each room remotely on Shiro’s behalf. 

Yusuke: However, the only person with a Meta-Nav is Gale. Others have appeared but never for very long. 

Yusuke: I find it hard to believe that one would appear on one of the girls’ handbooks at that precise moment. 

Monomi: Gale said he saw someone in Hachise’s Palace, right? If that person was the spy,  **they probably have the app** on their own handbook too. 

Hachise: So, let’s say they used Gale’s app to transport all of the people in the boys’ room to Kari’s Palace. 

Hachise: How would they use their own app to transport the girls in the girls’ room? 

Hachise: From what I’ve heard, this  **Shiro is a boy** . 

Hachise: The girls’ room doesn’t open for boys’ handbooks, and I would hope that applies to Kudo-sensei as well. 

Hachise: Then,  **Shiro couldn’t use his own handbook** to transport the girls in that room. 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Hachise: Was Shiro a girl after all? 

Gale: No, at least, I don’t think so, but he wouldn’t need to be. One night before Shiro’s murder, Lucille let him into the girls’ room to, erm, investigate. I saw them myself, and Lucille admitted to it the next morning. 

Noise: Yeah, I do remember that. Pres was  _ pissed _ . 

Hachise: Oh, I get it. 

Hachise: Shiro could have planted his own handbook in the girls’ room when  **Lucille let him in** . 

Hachise: If he had Kudo-sensei’s handbook, he’d still have no trouble getting back into his own room that night. 

Hachise: Then, when the time was right, Monokuma could activate Gale’s and Shiro’s handbooks simultaneously to transport everyone to the Palace. 

Hachise: What happened next?  **Emiko killed Kari’s cognition** of Shiro? 

Monomi: Apparently, Emiko crawled through the air duct in the girls’ room to the hot tub room. 

Reiko: She said Shiro attacked her when she was there, and because of her Ultimate Luck, she accidentally killed him in self-defense. 

Reiko: What was the cognitive Shiro doing in the hot tub room? 

Morgana: If  **Kari caught a glimpse of the real Shiro** through the window to that room before being transported, or if she for some reason assumed that he was in there, that would be enough. 

Morgana: Even if it was subconscious, her cognition of Shiro would appear in that room. 

Morgana: The cognitive Shiro was wearing his swimsuit, but the real Shiro was parading around in it after picking it out... 

Morgana: So it wouldn't be a stretch to think that Kari had seen him in it at some point, and her cognition of "Shiro in a swimsuit" would look just like the real one. 

Monomi: But, why would the other Shiro attack Emiko? 

Monomi:  **The Ultimate Moral Compass would never do that** ! 

**_Gale: I agree with that!_ **

Yusuke: I believe this is related to Kari’s distorted cognition. 

Gale: Exactly, even if Kari’s cognitions looked normal, she thought of us as prisoners and criminals. It’s no stretch that one of the cognitions would attack someone unprovoked because that’s just what she was afraid we’d do. Just like Lucille told me, the Ultimate Moral Compass wouldn’t attack Emiko, but Kari’s distorted cognition of him would. 

Hachise: Bravo, bravo, Gale, this is a spectacular fairytale. 

Gale: Are you saying I’m wrong? 

Hachise: Just because what you’re saying makes sense, if you can call it that, doesn’t mean it’s true, and it hasn’t gotten us closer to the matter at hand. 

Hachise: Who killed Takamaru Kazeryu? 

Hachise: If the story you’ve woven is true, Shiro could be the spy, and we can decide what to do about that afterwards. 

Hachise: However, for now, what matters is the identity of the blackened who killed Takamaru. 

Hachise: The spy has a motive, and maybe Shiro’s the spy, but how could Shiro, whom we thought was dead, have caused Takamaru’s plane to crash? 

Hachise: We’ve all but ruled out sabotage under the assumption that Takamaru’s inspection was flawless. 

Hachise: So, Ultimate Adventurer, how did he do it? 

I stopped for a moment to think. If Shiro were the spy, could something about that have allowed him to kill Takamaru? How did he cause the crash? 

Gale: What if, instead of sabotaging the plane,  **he sabotaged the pilot** ? He could’ve used the Metaverse. At the core of every Palace, there’s a Shadow. Unlike the cognitions, which are entirely fake, a Shadow is an embodiment of the Palace owner’s distorted heart. Morgana warned us not to kill a person’s Shadow because it could cause a mental shutdown. 

**_Ren: Show me your true form!_ **

I hadn’t expected Ren to disagree with me. He practically never spoke, especially during class trials. Whatever he had to say, I knew it had to be important. Morgana and Yusuke stood on either side of him, clearly ready to back whatever he was saying. 

Ren: Killing a person’s Shadow can trigger a mental shutdown. 

Yusuke: However, only Kari and Hachise have had Palaces. 

Morgana: We checked everyone’s names when the Meta-Nav appeared on Yusuke’s handbook. 

Ren: Takamaru doesn’t have one. 

Yusuke: How then would the spy kill Takamaru’s Shadow? 

Yusuke:  **No Palace means no Shadow** . 

**_Gale: I’ll slice through that argument!_ **

Gale: What about the remnants of Mementos? 

Gale: It’s kind of like a membrane between all the Palaces, right? 

Gale: Or maybe the Palace of our collective unconscious? 

Gale: Anyway, Reiko had a Shadow there, but she didn’t have a Palace. 

Morgana: Killing a person’s Shadow in Mementos might trigger a mental shutdown. 

Yusuke: We have not actually witnessed the effects of such an occurrence. 

Ren: But there’s still another problem… 

Morgana: A mental shutdown is just that. A person’s mind suddenly stops! 

Yusuke: Indeed, it is quite a gruesome thing to behold. 

Ren: You said before that Takamaru crashed into the deck of the ship. 

Ren: That means he pulled up after he started flying toward the hangar. 

Morgana: If he’d had a mental shutdown, he would’ve quit flying the plane! 

Morgana: He would’ve crashed into the water or the side of the ship! 

Morgana:  **There’s no way** he’d hit the deck! 

**_Gale: I’ll slice through that argument!_ **

Gale: Could he have fought it somehow? 

Gale: Maybe it started happening, but then he realized he might crash and panicked. 

Gale: So he pulled up to avoid hitting the side of the boat. 

Gale: However, once he was over the boat, the shutdown took hold, and he crashed. 

Ren: I don’t think that’s how mental shutdowns work. 

Morgana:  **Victims of mental shutdowns aren’t cognizant** of their surroundings. 

Morgana:  **They’ve been hit by cars** , buses, trains, you name it. 

Yusuke: If adrenaline could cause a moment of clarity as you described… 

Yusuke: There would certainly have been far fewer victims. 

Ren: Besides, think of how the plane landed. 

Yusuke: Indeed, you were not there, but  **it practically nosedived** . 

Yusuke: No mere spout of apathy could cause such a violent descent. 

Morgana:  **It swerved** in midair too! 

Ren: It almost crushed Miaya and Noise. 

Ren:  **That was no mental shutdown** . 

**_Gale: I agree with that!_ **

Hachise: Well, then, if whatever meta-magic you’re using couldn’t have done it, how would Shiro kill Takamaru? 

Gale: It wasn’t a mental shutdown. It was a  _ psychotic breakdown _ . The Phantom Thieves told me another Metaverse user was behind the psychotic breakdown incidents as well as the mental shutdown incidents. 

Morgana: Sorry, Gale, but I don’t think that’s what happened either. Not just any Metaverse user can cause a psychotic breakdown. 

Gale: Here, let me go over everything again from the top. Once I’m finished, you can tell me if you still don’t believe me. 

**_Gale: This is what really happened!_ **

Gale: This case started at the beginning of this entire killing game. After Kudo-sensei was killed for attacking Monokuma, the killer joined a group in mourning around our sensei’s body. However, while the other students were saying final farewells to their departed teacher, the killer had an ulterior motive. After waiting for everyone else to leave, the killer pilfered Kudo-sensei’s e-Handbook from his body. They needed access to other students’ dorm rooms, and they must have known Kudo-sensei’s handbook could unlock them. 

Gale: The killer acquired access to the other students’ rooms for one purpose: faking their own death. To this end, they set in motion a plot to target Emiko, the Ultimate Lucky Student. They started by tricking Lucille into letting them into the girls’ locker room, where they left their own e-Handbook, which featured a copy of the Metaverse Navigator, likely courtesy of Monokuma. We know most of the rest: the killer suggested throwing a pool party, planted tools from Reiko’s lab in the hot tub room—or perhaps its cognitive counterpart—and sent a fake love letter to Emiko to lure her there. 

Gale: When we all were showering before the pool party, the killer received another bit of assistance from Monokuma, who simultaneously activated the Metaverse Navigators on both the killer’s and my handbooks, which were present in the girls’ and boys’ locker rooms, respectively— _ after  _ the killer had left the boy’s locker room, and after Takamaru and Kari had entered the rooms. This transported all of us to Kari’s Palace, but since the distortion in her cognition hadn’t spread to the second floor yet, none of us were any the wiser. 

Gale: Then, when Emiko crawled through the air duct to the hot tub room—as the fake love letter had instructed—she was confronted not with the killer, but with Kari’s criminalistic cognition of the killer, who attacked her on sight. Emiko fatally wounded the cognition, which, unlike most, did not dissipate. I suspect this is because upon seeing the corpse, Kari, not realizing she was in her own Palace, unknowingly changed her cognition from “Shiro is here” to “Shiro’s body is here.” We investigated the scene of the crime as normal, and then we all returned to the stairs when the time came for the class trial. There was a moment before we returned to the first floor when we were all gathered at the base of the stairs; I suspect this is when Monokuma activated my own Metaverse Navigator again to return us to the real world. Otherwise, we would have found ourselves in the prison-like halls of Kari’s distorted cognition. 

Gale: We all know the next part. Emiko was executed because she had murdered the killer—or so we thought. In truth, the killer was hiding right under our noses. They probably recovered their own e-Handbook to use its Meta-Nav, or maybe Monokuma placed another Meta-Nav on Kudo-sensei’s handbook for them to use. I also believe Monokuma intentionally hid them from our handbooks’ maps, since there isn’t actually a rule indicating that the maps are accurate or include every student. Combined with the ability to travel between realities, this would make the killer virtually undetectable. Since they served as Monokuma’s spy, they were also able to break a single rule of the killing game, which allowed them to miss the subsequent class trials, and with Kudo-sensei’s handbook, they could sleep in Reiko’s room or Haruki’s room as needed without disturbing the tape on the doors of the deceased's rooms or breaking the rules about sleeping outside of the dormitory. 

Gale: All of that brings us to our current murder. Acting as an agent of Monokuma, the killer must have incentive to prevent us from escaping the killing game, so I imagine they were quite unnerved by Takamaru’s talent and newfound access to the Ultimate Pilot's lab. As they hatched a plan to dispose of the Ultimate Pilot, they thought of a way to kill two birds with one stone. They must have known about the plan for the reconnaissance mission, either from Monokuma or their own espionage, so they knew some of us would be on lookout on the deck of the ship. Thus, if they caused Takamaru to have a psychotic breakdown while flying the plane, they could manipulate him into not only crashing the plane, but crashing the plane into others. 

Gale: For this to be true, Takamaru’s killer must be Monokuma’s spy, must have taken Kudo-sensei’s handbook, must have faked their own death, and must be a Metaverse user with the ability to cause psychotic breakdowns. The student who took Kudo-sensei’s handbook is Shiro Hatori, the Ultimate Moral Compass, who could have faked his death using Kari’s Palace. However, according to the Phantom Thieves, the psychotic breakdown incidents rampant throughout last year were caused by another Metaverse user entirely. That means that the killer isn’t  _ just _ Shiro Hatori. In fact, the killer isn’t Shiro Hatori at all. That’s because the student we knew as Shiro Hatori, the Ultimate Moral Compass, is actually Goro Akechi, the Ultimate Detective! 

**_Noise: You’ve reached your limit, piecewise!_ **

Noise: Let me make sure my slope is constant. 

Noise: You want me to put my own goddamn finger on the button to vote for a dead guy. 

Noise: And not just any dead guy. 

Noise: The  _ Ultimate Moral Compass _ . 

Noise: Because he’s not “really” the Ultimate Moral Compass. 

Noise: He’s actually  _ another  _ dead guy! 

Noise: And you’re just gonna toss in that Akechi-senpai was behind the psychotic breakdowns? 

Noise: The fuckin’ Phantom Thieves, his greatest enemy, told you that? 

Noise: For the love of Archimedes, most of us  _ knew  _ Akechi-senpai! 

Noise: He was friends with Umeko, who fuckin’  _ died  _ in a psychotic breakdown incident! 

Noise: You’re sayin’ he killed her, Emiko,  _ and  _ Takamaru…

Noise: With some bullshit magic app, no less! 

Noise: On top of all that, you’re sayin’ the motherfucker disguised himself as Shiro…

Noise: And then  _ willingly  _ served as Monokuma’s spy in a twisted killing game. 

Noise: Akechi-senpai doesn’t even  _ look like  _ Shiro! 

Noise: Different hair, different eyes, different voice! 

Noise: Or is all of that conveniently explained by your smartphone magic too? 

Noise: I ain’t fuckin’ buyin’ it! 

Noise: Show me the proof, or shut the fuck up! 

Noise:  **You’ve got no goddamn proof** ! 

**_Gale: I’ll discover the truth here and now!_ **

Hachise: Well, Gale, let’s hear it. We’re all dying to know. 

Gale: It may not be much, but I do have one piece of evidence:  **Lucille’s message in blood** . 

Reiko: A message from Lucille? 

Noise: The fuck’s that got to do with anything? 

Gale: When she was poisoned for performing her forbidden action, she scribbled a message on the floor with the blood dripping from her eye. It was just two letters:  _ g  _ and  _ a _ . 

Monomi: I saw it too after Gale told me about it, but we couldn’t figure out what it meant. 

Gale: Lucille was obsessively trying to uncover the spy’s identity and get to the bottom of Shiro’s murder. What if she figured it out? We assumed that it was some unfinished word, but what if they were initials? Instead of an unfinished word, she was telling us the spy’s identity: G.A., Goro Akechi. 

Hachise: In that case, she could just as easily have meant to write, “gale,” right? 

Yusuke: Are you implying that Gale is the spy? 

Hachise: Everything he just described sounds like he could have pulled it off too as a fellow Metaverse user. Who says the ability to cause psychotic breakdowns was unique to Akechi-senpai? Maybe he’s giving us a fake explanation for Lucille’s dying message in order to clear his own name. 

Monomi: Why wouldn’t you trust Gale? 

Hachise: It makes a lot more sense than two ghosts coming back from the dead to kill Takamaru. Besides, wouldn’t Monokuma know Akechi’s identity? Then why is Shiro’s lab the Ultimate Moral Compass's lab, not the Ultimate Detective's lab? Can you explain that? 

Monomi: Weren’t the labs set up by Monokuma? Why should they count as evidence? 

Monokuma: Every student aboard this vessel, with the exception of Hachise, has one and only one Ultimate Research Lab, corresponding to their  _ real  _ talent. A student assuming a fake identity with a fake talent would not have a lab for that fake talent. 

Hachise: That settles it then. Gale’s making all of this up. 

There had to be an explanation. The Ultimate Moral Compass's lab existed, definitely, but maybe it wasn’t really what we had been led to believe. 

Gale: What if  **that lab isn’t Shiro’s** ? I mean, he just said it was his, right? We all just took his word for it. Monokuma never said anything about which lab was whose, so Shiro or Akechi could have just said that to throw us off. 

Noise: Then whose lab would it be? 

I looked around the room at the different podiums. I considered every other student. Most of the labs were already accounted for, but there was one possibility. 

Gale: It could be  **mine** . You didn’t find an Ultimate Adventurer's lab on the fifth floor, right? A compass would be just as fitting a symbol for an adventurer as a moral compass, and we don’t really know the lab’s true nature since we can’t access the elevator. 

Reiko: But, if that lab isn’t Shiro’s—or Akechi’s—then which one is? 

I opened the map on my e-Handbook and looked through the different rooms. Most of the rooms were obviously Ultimate Research Labs belonging to someone, or weren’t labs at all. There had to be something. 

Gale: It’s got be  **Lucille’s lab** . At least, we thought it was the Ultimate Prosecuting Attorney's lab because of all the criminal records, but that room could just as fittingly serve as the Ultimate Detective's lab, right? Since we discovered it after Lucille’s death, we don’t actually know how good a fit it is for her talent. 

Noise: This problem is recursive. If that’s true, which lab is Lucille’s? It can’t be hidden deeper in the ship. The 5th floor is a dead end. 

I opened my map again and looked through all of the rooms aboard the ship. None of them seemed to fit Lucille’s talent—except one. 

Gale:  **This room** , it’s this very room. These trial grounds are actually the Ultimate Prosecuting Attorney's lab. We assumed they were just for Monokuma’s sick game, but wouldn’t this place be the perfect environment for Lucille to hone her talent? 

Hachise: This is still pretty speculative. What if your lab is a separate room at the top of that elevator in Shiro’s lab? 

Gale: I’m trying to make sense of it too, but the labs aside, I want to trust Lucille, and I want to trust all of us. If I’m wrong, who killed Takamaru? Who else could be the spy? I don’t think any of us would do such a thing, not even Shiro. Lucille said that Shiro would never kill Emiko. I think she was right—because the person we met  _ wasn’t  _ Shiro. 

Yusuke: Then, that is all you have. You are asking us to trust you. 

Noise: Fuck, at this coordinate, it’s gotta be Shiro or Gale. Takamaru wasn’t the type to off himself, and none of us could have fucked with Takamaru or the plane without that magic app. The Phantom Thieves would just be pointin’ fingers at each other if any of them could cause psychotic breakdowns, and I don’t think any of my classmates is the spy. 

The room fell silent after that. Our eyes shifted between one another, but the quiet was broken only by the occasional cough or sigh. After a long minute, Monokuma spoke up. “I suppose that’s all you have, then. In that case, we’ll go ahead and get on with the voting time. Please remember to vote for someone, or you’ll be punished!” 

I took note of Takamaru’s crossed-out face as the touchscreen folded out from my podium. Then, after a long breath, I tapped the red X over Shiro’s face. This was the moment of truth. The results appeared on the TV behind Monokuma: three votes for me, four votes for Shiro. 

“Hahaha-ah!” another voice cackled. “I can’t believe you all fell for it!” Despite my suspicions, I was not prepared for what happened next. Shiro faded into view and pushed over the sign with his face on it. He looked the same, but somehow, he seemed completely different. Instead of his white suit, he was now wearing a tan peacoat and black pants. Instead of their usual blue, his eyes were now a reddish brown. Most notably, he wore a psychotic smile. His voice was higher than I remembered, and his gloved hands were wrapped around his twisted expression. “Were hair dye, colored contacts, and vocal training really all it took to fool you? So much for that nonsense about friendship.” 

“G-Gale was right. Akechi, what are you doing? We thought you were—”

 “Shouldn’t that be obvious?” Akechi interrupted Yusuke. “I’m here to finish what I started. I was given the opportunity to kill the Phantom Thieves, and I seized it. I even used your own trick against you to fake my death, Joker.” 

“How did you survive?” Ren asked. “We would have—”

“Would have what?” Akechi retorted. “You would have reported me to the police, had me arrested, tried to befriend me? There is  _ nothing  _ you could have done for me!” 

“She looked up to you,” Monomi said. “She trusted you. Umeko, Lucille, Emiko, Kari—they all trusted you!  _ I  _ trusted you!” 

“The first thing you should’ve learned from this killing game is that you can only trust yourself,” Akechi chastised. “You especially shouldn’t have trusted him.” Akechi gestured toward me as his smile widened. “I may have caused the psychotic breakdown in Takamaru, but he’s still the one who drove the plane into the ship. That means he’s the blackened, and all of you are going to be executed.” 

“That can’t be right!” Reiko shouted. 

“I was hoping he would crash the plane into the Phantom Thieves,” Akechi mused, “but I suppose this outcome achieves the same goal. Give Panther my regards on the other side.” 

“Congratulations!” Monokuma cheered. “You voted correctly! The blackened is none other than Goro Akechi, the Ultimate Detective!” 

The room fell silent. Akechi slowly turned to Monokuma. “What?” 

“Takamaru may have crashed the plane, but it isn’t like he chose to descend into the ship. His crash was caused by the psychotic breakdown that you inflicted,” Monokuma explained, “so you are his killer.” 

“But…” Akechi started, “that isn’t what you said! You told me—”

“I don’t seem to remember telling you anything,” Monokuma chuckled. 

“No…” Akechi growled. “I won’t let it end like this!” 

The Ultimate Detective turned back toward the class and drew a pistol from his peacoat. “Look out!” Reiko shouted as the blackened fired the silenced weapon. I had instinctively ducked below my podium, but when I peeked over it, I saw a red stain spreading across Ren’s chest. The Ultimate Phantom Thief pulled his hand away from the wound and stared in silence at his reddened palm before collapsing. Yusuke practically leapt from his podium to catch his friend as he fell, and Akechi turned his gun to the Ultimate Artist. 

Before he could fire again, however, he was tackled to the ground by Noise, Hachise, and Reiko. Noise held the gun by its barrel and kept the weapon pointed upward while Reiko restrained his other arm. Hachise planted a foot on his neck to keep him on the ground. “You fuckin’ sicko!” Noise shouted. 

“Get his legs!” Hachise instructed as she gripped Akechi’s right hand and started prying his fingers off the firearm. Reiko locked her legs around Akechi’s left arm to keep it pinned while she wrapped her arms around his kicking legs to keep them from striking Noise or Hachise. 

“Joker!” Yusuke and Morgana cried in the meantime. “Joker, stay with us!” 

“Gale!” Reiko called. “Some help!” I fought the urge to rush to the Phantom Thieves and instead moved toward Akechi and the others. I took the red whip from my side and snapped it around Akechi’s gun before yanking the weapon from his hand. 

“Now then,” Monokuma interrupted, “I’ve prepared a very special punishment for Goro Akechi, the Ultimate Detective!” Just like before, the trial grounds around us shifted and faded out of view. In their place was the stony arena at the heart of Hachise’s Palace. Akechi, Reiko, Noise, Hachise, Monomi, and I were at its center. The Phantom Thieves had been left in the real world. Monokuma’s chair floated overhead, and he slammed his gavel down onto a button as the cognitive Monokumas cheered in the crowd. “Let’s give it everything we’ve got! It’s  **_punishment time_ ** !” 

“Get away from me!” Akechi screamed as a red light exploded from his body and blasted the four of us away from him. His clothing had been replaced by a black-and-purplish-blue-striped bodysuit with black belts wrapped around the waist and limbs. He wore a pointed, black helm and a short, black cape that was tattered at the ends. Now I was certain. He was Paradise Lost. He drew a one-handed sword and pointed it at each of us threateningly. 

“Robin Hood!” A noble Persona materialized at Akechi’s side. His muscular body was covered by a white suit with golden stripes and blue-and-gray accents. A blue-and-white cape that was split into two distinct halves flowed majestically over his shoulders. Conical, red pauldrons poked past golden trim on his shoulders, and the letters  _ R  _ and  _ H  _ were displayed in a heroic font on his chest. He carried a massive, golden longbow that resembled a pair of feathery wings, and his fingers wrapped around a golden arrow the length of a spear. 

The heroic Persona fired a heavy arrow at the original Monokuma. The projectile struck the floating chair, which spun comically in circles before Monokuma plummeted to the ground. When the so-called headmaster rose to his feet, however, his red eye glowed with an eerie purpose, and he seemed to chuckle silently. Suddenly, the hundreds or thousands of cognitive Monokumas in the audience stampeded down into the arena. Now dressed in red capes, crested helmets, and bronze breastplate, the legion of bears set upon the blackened in droves. “Akechi-senpai!” Hachise called. “Tell us who the mastermind is! You can make this right!” 

“Ask me again in Hell!” Screaming violently, Akechi decimated the Monokumas’ ranks with a deadly curse attack that flowed through the arena. The Monokumas’ numbers, however, were too much, and they immediately overwhelmed him. He parried the first few strikes with his sword and dodged several others, but soon the first spear pierced his flesh. One hit his side. Another struck his leg. His Persona unleashed another attack, and the Monokumas’ legion was again halved by a wave of light, but there were still more than enough. Soon, I couldn’t make out the details. There was just a cacophony of bronze and flesh, screams of pain and defiance, blasts of darkness and light. When the Monokumas cleared, Akechi’s body lay motionless on the ground, impaled by more spears than I cared to count. 

“Returning to real world. Thank you for your hard work.”


	13. Chapter 6: The Oddest See: The Oddest Sea

Following the trial, exhaustion wrapped me in a deathlike sleep. I woke up the next morning without any memory of having returned to my bed. It made sense, then, that I found myself somewhere else. Instead of my own room, I lay on a mattress on the floor of an unfamiliar dorm room. I guessed it was Miaya’s based on the stuffed Monomi on a nearby shelf, and this second mattress was Kari’s, which the president had brought in before locking herself out of her own room. I must have been carried here after collapsing following the last trial. My extended stay in the Metaverse had done no favors for my constitution. 

This room had a coffee table like mine, but it had been pushed against a wall to accommodate for the extra mattress. My eyes widened when I saw Akechi’s pistol resting on the tabletop. _There’s no way that should just be sitting out._ I took the handgun and inspected it. It was equipped with a silencer, and there was still some ammunition. After ensuring the safety was on, I decided to conceal the firearm under my shirt in the waist of my pants for safekeeping.

As I left the room, I checked the time on my e-Handbook to see that I had slept long past the morning announcement. I also saw the last murder’s Monokuma File, which I hadn’t even thought to read in my rush before the last trial: 

“The victim is Takamaru Kazeryu.”

“The time of death was 7:35pm.” 

“The body was found in the wreckage of the plane from the Ultimate Pilot's lab.”

“Cause of death was force of impact from the plane’s crash.”

I also saw that the first rule was still crossed out. I supposed the last motive hadn’t expired with Takamaru’s demise. I opened the Meta-Nav to see if Alibaba had managed to patch herself through, but I was greeted only by the app’s silent, red background. Finally, I opened the map to locate the others. Reiko, Yusuke, and Noise were all in the kitchen, so I made my way down the hall toward them. 

“Morgana, bring me another pepper shaker. This one’s out,” Reiko instructed as she sweated over a grill. 

“Sure thing!” Morgana agreed as he jumped onto a countertop and pawed through a shelf of spices before grabbing a shaker in his mouth and prancing to the chef. 

“Noise, I need another 50 mL of olive oil,” she continued. 

“You got it,” Noise affirmed. 

“How are those vegetables coming along, Yusuke?” the Ultimate Thespian asked. 

“Nearly complete,” Yusuke reported as he chopped away at some greens with a sharpened spoon. 

“Look at this son of a bitch. The dead walk again,” Noise chuckled to me as he passed Reiko the requested oil and crossed his arms. 

“What’s cookin’?” I asked while crossing my own arms in reply. 

“Barbecue,” Reiko replied, “it’s almost done.” 

“We believed something a bit more wholesome would be suitable for lunch considering, well…” Yusuke started. 

“Considering the ratio of injured to uninjured,” Noise finished. 

“Besides, I have to keep busy, or I’ll…” Reiko huffed as she seemed unwilling to finish her sentence. 

“We’re in pretty deep shit,” Noise clarified. “Takamaru’s gone. The plane’s gone. Our best shot at gettin’ outta here literally went up in flames.” 

“I know it looks bad,” I admitted, “but I think we’re finally making headway. We took out Monokuma’s spy, after all.” 

“ _Monokuma_ took out his spy,” Reiko corrected. “ _We_ stood there and gawked, and all of that was at the cost of—at a cost that was way too high. How much more is it going to cost for us to win?” 

“You’re right,” I agreed. “I’ll think of something. I promise.” 

“I don’t doubt it,” Noise snickered. “I still can’t believe you put that shit together about Akechi.” 

“Indeed, we would have been quite lost were it not for your miraculous return,” Yusuke complimented. 

“How’d you figure it out?” Noise asked. 

“Well,” I explained, “from what Noise said, Shiro was the one most likely to have Kudo-sensei’s handbook, and from what the Phantom Thieves said, Akechi was the only person who could cause psychotic breakdowns, but the spy caused Takamaru’s psychotic breakdown, and the spy also had Kudo-sensei’s handbook, so…” 

“You took a leap of faith cuz nothin’ else made sense,” Noise understood. 

“Honestly, I don’t feel like I figured anything out,” I confessed. “I just took what everyone else figured out and put it together. The Phantom Thieves, Lucille, Haruki, Miaya—everyone figured it out.” 

“Well, like it or not, you put it all together,” Reiko said, “so I’m going to hold you to that promise. Figure out how to beat Monokuma.” 

“Yeah,” I decided, “I’ll do it.” 

When lunch was ready, we took the barbecue downstairs to the infirmary. Hachise was waiting there for us and tending to Miaya and Ren, both of whom were still wounded but could now sit up in their beds. The bloody bullet that had been extracted from Ren’s torso lay on a surgical table at his bedside. “Thank God you made it,” I breathed in relief. 

“She did it,” Ren said as he nodded to Hachise. 

“It wasn’t easy with only one hand,” Hachise admitted. “Lucky for all of you, I’m a genius, and I had quite a bit of incentive.” 

“Ren agreed to tell her everything about the Metaverse in exchange for her help,” Monomi said. The animatronic rabbit startled me slightly as she appeared from beneath Miaya’s bed. 

“I bet that was a trip,” I chuckled. 

“Make way!” Reiko instructed as she and Yusuke pushed past me and began distributing plates of grilled meat and vegetables. 

The surviving students ate together and shared pleasant conversation. We talked among ourselves as we still tried to make sense of the last trial. 

“Do you think Lucille knew Shiro was Akechi when she was fuckin’ him?” Noise asked with his mouth full. “She had the hots for Akechi back in school, after all.” 

“I don’t think so. She didn’t even mention anything to me about it,” Monomi disclosed on Miaya’s behalf. 

“She definitely didn’t know he was the spy,” I shared, “at least not at first.” 

“Then she realized it as she was dying,” Reiko deduced. “She used the last of her life to solve that mystery and share the answer with us.” 

“That has to suck,” Hachise commiserated, “to spend your last moments realizing you’d been betrayed.” 

“I still find it hard to believe Akechi was alive,” Yusuke admitted. “We never found his body, but he vanished so suddenly.” 

“He must have left the Metaverse just before being shot,” Morgana guessed, “or maybe it was something even crazier.” 

“I should’ve realized it was him,” Ren chastised himself. 

“He had us all fooled,” Reiko offered. “That’s nobody’s fault but his.” 

“He must’ve really hated you guys,” Noise chimed in, “to participate in some sick game just to have a chance to kill you.” 

“He turned himself psychotic in our final battle with him,” Morgana shared. “That psychosis must have festered all this time as a thirst for vengeance.” 

“Wouldn’t you do it?” Hachise asked as she looked around at all of us. “For revenge?” 

“What! Of course not!” Yusuke protested. 

“Oh? What if it was the mastermind?” Hachise posited. “I saw that painting in your lab. You can’t honestly tell me you’re over what happened to Ann.” 

“Hachise, stop it,” Monomi intervened. The Ultimate Survivor shrugged and took another bite of pork. 

“I might,” Reiko admitted, “if it meant getting back at Akechi or the mastermind for Takamaru.” 

“Noise?” Hachise asked as she turned to the Ultimate Mathematician. 

“I got better shit to do,” Noise groaned. “Kudo-sensei would just yell at me if I wasted my life on some dumb shit like a chance for revenge.” 

“Puhuhu, how very noble of you,” Monokuma interjected as he appeared from beneath Ren’s bed. 

“Isn’t it a little early for you to ruin our day?” Reiko complained. 

“On the contrary, I’ve just come up with a spectacular new motive!” Monokuma cheered. “Now, for this one, why don’t we—”

“You don’t need one,” I interrupted. 

“Huh?” Monokuma replied as he cocked his head to the side. 

“You don’t need another motive,” I repeated. “There’s already been a murder.” 

Every face in the room gave me a confused look. Noise started counting the number of students in the room on his fingers. Hachise’s mouth extended into a brace-faced grin. “Gale is right. There has already been a murder.” 

“Why, whomever do you mean?” Monokuma asked. 

“Emiko Sakurai, the Ultimate Lucky Student,” I answered, “she didn’t kill Goro Akechi. She only killed Kari’s cognition of him, yet she was falsely executed as the blackened. That means you murdered her, Monokuma. Rather, the blackened behind Emiko’s murder is really the _mastermind_ controlling you and this killing game.” 

“Hahaha-ah!” Monokuma cackled in reply. “Let me make sure I understand. You want to have a trial for the murder of Emiko Sakurai to determine the identity of the mastermind behind the Killing School Cruise?” 

“That’s right,” I affirmed. “We have access to the whole boat now, right? That means we know as much as we can. There’s no reason for us to allow anyone else to die. In fact, we should have done this a long time ago.” 

“You realize if you get it wrong, you’ll all be punished, right?” Monokuma snickered. 

“We won’t get it wrong,” Ren replied on my behalf. 

“Yeah, let’s do this shit,” Noise agreed. “We got the smartest guys and baddest bitches I ever met in here.” 

“I’m quite curious,” Hachise started. “If we get it right, Monokuma, will you execute yourself?” 

“Puhuhu, I wonder if you’ll even get that far…” Leaving us with that, the self-proclaimed headmaster vanished beneath Ren’s bed. 

“This was your plan?” Reiko asked me. 

“I was hoping we’d have time to recover before the next motive,” I admitted, “but now that we know the truth about Shiro, we have a real foothold.” 

“Then you suggest we defeat Monokuma at his own game,” Yusuke voiced. 

“I don’t think the mastermind will execute themselves,” I shared, “but if we can figure out who they are, that could give us a major advantage.” 

“Alright, that’s as good a plan of attack as any,” Reiko conceded. “Everyone, let’s split up and search for clues.” The Ultimate Thespian reached her hand into the center of the group. Ren and Yusuke put their hands on hers, and Morgana added his paw to the mix. Miaya extended her hand, and Noise placed a hand on hers. Hachise and I added our hands to the top. “At the end of this, all of us will be the Ultimate Survivors.” 

 I decided to begin my exploration on the fifth floor since I had yet to see it for myself. The Ultimate Physicist's lab was impressive, but everything there was too advanced for me to make sense of. The Ultimate Pilot's lab was vast, but it was largely empty now that the plane was gone. The dance floor was peppy but unhelpful. The Ultimate Mathematician's lab was chaotic; Noise’s shorthand and jargon was practically Greek to me. No, I could read some Greek; this was worse. 

Disappointed with the final floor of the ship, I turned my investigation to the fourth floor. I found nothing of note in the arcade, Ultimate Model's lab, or Ultimate Cheerleader's lab. However, in Lucille’s lab—or, rather, Akechi’s lab—I found the Phantom Thieves sifting through some files. Ren was sitting in the lab’s rocking chair while Yusuke peered over his shoulder and Morgana groomed himself atop the nearby table. 

“Should he be out of bed?” I asked as I gestured to Ren. 

“No,” Yusuke sighed, “but there was no arguing the matter with him.” 

“I’ve been through worse,” Ren asserted as he turned to the next page of his case file. 

“What’d you find?” I asked. 

“Now that we know Akechi was the spy, we have a solid lead,” Morgana explained. “He has a file since our leader’s testimony incriminated him in the psychotic breakdown incidents, and he was officially declared missing around the same time.” 

“The mastermind is connected to Akechi somehow,” Ren elaborated, “so that’s a place to start.” 

“However, it would appear that all of Akechi’s close colleagues from work have been arrested as co-conspirators to Masayoshi Shido or on related charges,” Yusuke continued, “with the exception of Sae Niijima, whom we know personally and can be rather certain is not the mastermind.” 

“Could one of them have escaped?” I wondered. “What about Shido? Akechi worked for him before. Wouldn’t it make sense for them to team up to get revenge?” 

“That does seem plausible,” Yusuke admitted. “Shido would have the motive, and he was certainly cruel enough to dispose of his own son when his usefulness expired.” 

“He was filthy rich too,” Morgana added. “He would have the resources to pull this off if enough of his connections managed to avoid arrest.” 

“However, I was quite certain that we had changed his heart...” Yusuke pondered aloud. 

“Let’s keep looking,” Ren said as he stood up and moved toward the shelf. I moved closer when I noticed his limp, and a moment later, I was glad I did. The Ultimate Phantom Thief collapsed against a bookshelf. Thankfully, Yusuke and I caught him before he hit the floor, but he instinctively gripped a book on the shelf that only came halfway out when he fell. A loud clunk sounded from behind the bookshelf, and suddenly, the shelf slid inward before shifting to the left. 

“A secret door!” Morgana exclaimed as we looked through the rectangular archway into the newly-opened room. The room was a dark and empty cube, at the center of which was only one item: a gift-wrapped box with a tag attached to it. 

Ren, Yusuke, Morgana, and I cautiously approached the box. Ren took the tag from the box, and Morgana climbed onto his shoulder to read it aloud: “Akechi-kun, here is my end of the bargain. I look forward to working with you. Happy killing!” 

The Phantom Thieves and I looked around at each other before Ren worked up the nerve to open the container. Inside, the box held a grim sight: a pile of human bones, on top of which was a folded document. “What is this?” Yusuke asked as he covered his mouth in horror. 

Ren took the document from the box and unfolded it. “Dental records,” he observed, “and a DNA test.” 

“This is an analysis of the bones in the box,” Morgana clarified, “confirming that they belong to one…” 

“Masayoshi Shido…” Ren finished. 

“Holy shit,” I gasped as I looked back at the box. 

Ren knelt down and closely compared the dental records to the teeth on the skull. “They match,” he confirmed. 

“So much for him being the mastermind,” Morgana meowed. 

“I’m going to keep looking around,” I said after taking a moment to process what I was seeing. “Come find me if you turn up any more leads.” 

Ren nodded in agreement, and I left the Ultimate Detective's lab. After ascending to the third floor, I found nothing out of the ordinary in the infirmary, Ultimate Phantom Thief's lab, or Ultimate Circus Performer's lab. In the Ultimate Forensic Criminalist's lab, however, I found Hachise. “What are you doing in here?” I asked. 

“Investigating,” she answered with a chipper grin, “there’s something I want to show you.” 

“Alright,” I agreed somewhat hesitantly, “what’s up?” 

Hachise moved toward the lab’s locked backdoor and produced her e-Handbook from her skirt’s pocket. “You kept your end of the deal; you told me how the Phantom Thieves change people’s hearts. Now I’ll keep mine.” 

“Let’s see it then,” I acquiesced as I stepped forward. 

Hachise swiped her handbook over the door’s adjacent scanner, but it beeped angrily in reply. “Oops, sorry, wrong one,” she chuckled as she pocketed her handbook and produced a second e-Handbook from her other pocket. 

“You have two e-Handbooks?” I wondered. 

“It’s called a Survivor Perk e-Handbook,” Hachise shared with a grin. “It’s my consolation prize for winning the first killing game. It’s basically the same as my normal handbook, but it lets me open a few things the normal handbook doesn’t—like this door or the cabinet with the poisons.” 

“Then that’s how you made it look like you couldn’t open that cabinet,” I realized. 

“Clever, isn’t it?” she giggled. “When the forbidden actions were put in place, I started preparing for the possibility that I might have to self-amputate in the case of an asthma attack. While I was grabbing painkillers for just such an occasion, I helped myself to Monokuma's poison. Of course, I didn't find a use for it until later. Anyway, that's all ancient history now. Why don't we take a looksie in here?” 

Using her Survivor Perk e-Handbook, Hachise unlocked the lab’s backdoor. She led me into a narrow room that was noticeably colder than the rest of the ship. Rows of large capsules—eighteen in total—folded out of the room’s walls. “Are those…” I started, but Hachise interrupted by twirling around and smiling at me. 

“They’re for the bodies,” she confirmed. “Like I said, this place is a morgue, or maybe you could consider it the Ultimate Survivor's lab.” 

Hachise slid one of the capsules outward and wiped some fog off part of the glass. Inside, I saw the face of Hifumi Togo. Her body rested peacefully inside. I covered my mouth as the sight filled me with something uncanny. “Then,” I said as I averted my eyes, “you knew Shiro wasn’t really dead? His body must have been missing from this place.” 

“No,” Hachise corrected, “it wasn’t.” 

“What?” 

“When I first discovered this place, the bodies of all the deceased from this killing game were accounted for: Kudo-sensei, Hifumi, Kagami, Shiro, and Emiko,” Hachise listed. “Then, after the next trial, I found Charlotte’s, Ann’s, Lucille’s, and Kari’s bodies here as well. Haruki’s body showed up next, and now Takamaru’s is here too. I was careless and didn’t check for yours, but other than that, there haven’t been any missing corpses.” 

“But, Shiro wasn’t dead, right?” I wondered. “We saw Akechi at the end of the trial. He was disguised as Shiro.” 

“You’re right,” Hachise agreed. “Before, Shiro’s body was here, and it had the stab wound in the chest, just like Mia described, but now it’s been replaced with Akechi’s body, which was impaled by that legion of Monokumas.” 

“Then what’s going on?” I asked. 

“The first body was a fake,” Hachise deduced. “Maybe it was the real Shiro Hatori or someone that looked like him. The mastermind altered the body so it would match how we thought he’d died. Still, the implications of that are unsettling. It means the mastermind might have look-alikes prepared for other bodies.” 

“That means any of these bodies could be fake,” I reasoned. 

“Mm-hmm,” Hachise agreed, “I was dumb to assume the bodies were legit, but I’m done assuming.” 

“Do you have a plan?” I asked. 

 Hachise stepped back into Kari’s lab for a moment and returned with the president’s binder. She opened it to the page that Kari had used to collect fingerprints. “I can use these,” she explained with a smile. “I don’t have dental records for any of the deceased, and I can’t check their rooms for DNA samples since I don’t have access, but I can check the bodies’ fingerprints to see if they match.” 

“That’s good thinking,” I complimented, “but it won’t work for all of them.” 

“Yeah,” Hachise conceded, “some fingerprints are missing: Kudo-sensei, Hifumi, Kagami, Emiko, and Akechi. But it won’t hurt to check the others.” 

“Go for it, then,” I said. “I’m going to keep investigating.” 

“I leave it to you, Gale!” Hachise snickered before using her inhaler. 

Leaving Hachise to her devices, I continued to the second floor. When I investigated the pool, I noticed the door to the girls’ locker room had been left slightly open. Repressing an uncomfortable sense of déjà vu, I took a deep breath and opened the door. Inside, Noise was pushing Miaya in a wheelchair while the latter remotely controlled Monomi with her handbook. 

“Pretty ballsy of you to call out the mastermind like that,” Noise complimented as I entered, “got any clue who it is?” 

“Nope,” I confessed, “but I’m confident we can figure it out.” 

“Wouldn’t Monokuma hide any evidence that would incriminate the mastermind?” Monomi wondered aloud. 

“Maybe,” I agreed, “but maybe not.” 

“How do you figure?” Noise asked. 

“Didn’t you notice?” I replied. “When I said that, he sounded intrigued. I think he’s curious to see if we can really do it. I don’t know what he’ll do if we figure it out, though.” 

“We’ll cross that intersection when we get to it,” Noise said. “Our y-intercept has to be somewhere.” 

“So, why are you guys in here?” I asked. 

“Noise wanted to investigate this area since it’s where Akechi faked his death,” Monomi explained on Miaya’s behalf, “but he needed my handbook to get in.” 

“Find anything useful?” I inquired. 

“You bet,” Noise chuckled. “Check this shit out.” Noise knelt down and lifted one of the tiles on the floor. A hollow space was hidden beneath the tile. Inside, there was a small fog machine. 

“What the…” 

“This explains why the girls’ room was so clouded,” Noise answered my unfinished question. “It wasn’t steam after all. Rather, it was fog that was deliberately generated to cloud the room.”

“We think Akechi-senpai put this here to prepare for the murder,” Monomi explained. 

“That ain’t all,” Noise continued. “We also found this.” Noise produced an e-Handbook from his pocket. He opened the electronic ID and showed me its owner: Goro Akechi. “He planted it with the fog machine, just like you said.” 

“I can’t believe it was still here,” I marveled. 

“Well, he couldn’t really come back for it since it was locked in the girls’ room,” Monomi theorized. 

“I was surprised too,” Noise added. “Aside from Kari’s, which was locked in her room, and Kudo-sensei’s, which was stolen, all the handbooks have been cleaned up with the bodies. At least, we ain’t seen any others. Maybe Monokuma only takes ‘em if they were on their owner when they died.” 

“Well, for whatever reason, it’s here, and it’s pretty interesting,” Monomi added. 

“What do you mean?” I asked. 

Noise scrolled through the handbook’s apps as he explained, “There’s 0 sign of that creepy red eyeball. I’m sure it was here at 1st, but Monokuma probably deleted it after executing Akechi to cover his tracks. What’s really interesting is this handbook’s map.” 

Noise opened the map and scrolled through the floors as he continued, “It’s complete. Our maps only had the floors we were allowed to go to. Even now that we’ve passed all the barriers, we still don’t have data for the labyrinth where we woke up, the backdoor behind Kari’s lab, or whatever’s past the elevator in Shiro’s lab—erm, I guess it’s your lab, actually. This map, on the other hand, has the whole equation. There’s just some small corridor past Kari’s lab, and the labyrinth doesn’t seem to have any surprises, just a bunch of hallways and the rooms where we woke up.” 

“What about the elevator?” I asked. 

“That’s where it gets good. The elevator goes up to the aftcastle.” Noise scrolled through the map and showed me a long path connecting from the Ultimate Adventurer's lab to a large room inside the aft of the ship. 

“Hmm, I’m gonna go check it out,” I said. 

“Hold on,” Noise interjected. “Before you go, there’s somethin’ else I gotta point out.” 

“Sure,” I agreed, “what’s up?” 

“I was right about the engine,” Noise asserted. 

“About the what?” I asked. 

“He wasn’t there for that, remember?” Monomi reminded Noise. 

“Right,” Noise sighed, “basically, I crunched the numbers, and the ship’s interior doesn’t have the volume to hold an engine room, not the kind you’d need for this son of a bitch.” 

“You’re sure?” I asked. 

“See for yourself,” Noise verified as he scrolled through the map again. Sure enough, there wasn’t much free surface area, certainly not enough for anything as big as an engine room. While some floors seemed smaller than others, there were rooms on the adjacent floors that were tall enough to extend into those floors. For example, the Ultimate Pilot's lab took almost as much space on the fourth floor as it did on the fifth, and the Ultimate Thespian's lab took a noticeable amount of space on the first floor as well as the second. 

“I’ll see what I can figure out,” I assured him. “There might be some clue in the aftcastle.” 

“We’ll catch up with you when we’re done investigating this area,” Monomi said. “We still want to check out the hot tub and the boys’ room.”

After exiting the pool, I quickly checked the Ultimate Thespian's lab and the Ultimate Artist's lab, but neither seemed to hold anything new. Finally, I entered the Ultimate Adventurer's lab, my lab. Next to the elevator, Reiko was tinkering with a familiar set of equipment: an external battery, wire cutters, a soldering iron, a sledgehammer, and others. The Ultimate Thespian had re-demolished the sheetrock around the elevator’s button and was operating on the plethora of wires therein. A textbook lay open on the floor next to the determined thespian. 

“Any luck with the elevator?” I asked. 

“The elevator is fine,” Reiko replied, “wherever it is. The problem is that the device that calls the elevator isn’t working. Mechanically, it’s fine. It’s just not receiving any power, and it’s rigged to overload unless it receives the exact amount of power required to operate it.” 

“Well, any luck with that?” I pressed. 

“Yeah,” Reiko answered, “thanks to Noise’s tools. He said you two found them here after Lucille tried to get it working. Unfortunately, she didn’t know anything about electrical engineering.” 

“I take it that you do,” I surmised. 

“I know more than she did,” Reiko clarified. “I’ve worked on plenty of electronic props for shows, but it isn’t my talent or anything. Kagami would’ve had this up and running in ten seconds.” 

“Is there anything I can do to help?” I offered. 

“Nope, I think I’ve just about got it,” Reiko explained. “We may not have Kagami, but zir lab had a book on electrical engineering that has everything I need to make this baby sing.” On cue, Reiko set down her tools and stood up. “Try it out.” 

I stepped forward and pressed the button. To my silent delight, a ring of blue light illuminated the circumference of the button, and a small panel above the elevator doors activated to show a pixelated arrow pointing downward. After a moment, the doors opened with a musical ding. “Ladies first,” Reiko offered as I stepped into the elevator. She followed after. 

Inside, the elevator only had two buttons: an up-arrow and a down-arrow. I pressed the up-arrow, and the doors closed. Reiko and I were carried upward as a jazzy tune played softly. The ride was much smoother than the elevator connecting to the trial grounds, but I was filled with more anxiety nonetheless. The elevator stopped with a pleasant ding. 

The doors slid open to reveal the interior of the aftcastle. The centerpiece of the room was a large wooden wheel like the helm of a pirate’s ship, whose topmost spoke featured the likeness of Monokuma’s head. The rest of the room, however, was comparably modern. Soft carpet covered the floor, and, instead of windows overlooking the sea, the walls were lined with colossal monitors. The screens, however, were dark. 

“Jackpot,” Reiko observed, “this looks like the control room.” The Ultimate Thespian walked past the helm and approached a control panel at the head of the room. However, when she interacted with it, she was greeted only with a pixelated picture of Monokuma on the frontmost monitor, accompanied by a prompt for a password. 

The elevator dinged again, and a group of students entered the room after us: Noise, Miaya, Hachise, Yusuke, and Ren, followed by Morgana and the animatronic Monomi. “Ooh, this looks good,” Hachise giggled. 

“Holy shit,” Noise marveled. 

“Miaya, do you think you could help me with this?” Reiko asked. 

“I’m not a hacker, but I’ll see what I can do,” Monomi said on Miaya’s behalf as Noise wheeled her to Reiko’s side. 

“Why are there so many?” Yusuke asked as he looked from side to side at the screens. 

“The ship’s security camera footage must be monitored simultaneously,” Hachise figured. “I wonder where the computer is. There are monitors and a keyboard but no CPU.” 

“Let’s look around,” Ren suggested. 

With the Phantom Thieves’ help, Hachise pried one monitor off the wall and found it was wireless. Reiko and Noise looked over Miaya’s shoulder as she tried her hand at a few passwords, only to be rejected repeatedly. I found myself drawn to the steering wheel. Experimentally, I turned it, but the ship did not seem to respond. _Charlotte was right about the aftcastle, but this doesn’t seem to work. Then, if this isn’t controlling the ship, what is?_

As I stared at the floor to contemplate this question, I noticed something strange: a thin line a little less than a meter long revealed a part in the carpet’s hair. I knelt down behind the steering wheel to trace my finger across the carpet. 

“A hint?” Reiko’s voice interrupted my train of thought. 

“Did you find something?” Hachise asked. 

“Not really,” Monomi reported for Miaya, “I just got the option after guessing the password wrong enough times.” 

“Well, what is it?” Morgana asked. “Let’s see the hint already!” 

Miaya pressed a button, and a code appeared on the screen below the textbox: “WE 16.” 

“We sixteen?” Noise read aloud. 

“Does that refer to the sixteen students originally aboard the ship?” Reiko wondered. 

“Let’s try it out,” Monomi replied. Miaya gave the password a few more tries with little success. 

My attention, meanwhile, returned to the helm. “Hachise,” I requested, “can you help me with something?” 

“What’s up, Gale?” she asked as she stepped away from a detached screen and approached me. 

“Put your ear to the floor here,” I instructed as I pointed to the spot just past the line. “I’m going to try something.” 

Hachise complied with my request, and I grabbed the topmost spoke of the helm. “W-E-1-6,” I muttered to myself. I turned the helm counterclockwise until the topmost spoke was facing the left. “Anything?” I asked. 

“Nope,” Hachise reported. 

_Hmm, I wonder if it’s like that kind of lock then._

I turned the wheel clockwise a full three hundred sixty degrees until the decorated spoke was pointing left again. “I heard something,” Hachise observed, “like a click.” 

“Awesome,” I replied. 

I turned the wheel counterclockwise until the spoke was pointing to the right. “Nothing,” Hachise said. I continued to turn the wheel counterclockwise another full rotation until the spoke pointed right again. “There it is again,” Hachise noticed. 

Then, I turned the wheel clockwise until the spoke was pointing to the one o’clock position. “Anything?” I asked after waiting a moment. 

“Nope,” Hachise reported. 

_Hmm, I thought for sure that was right: west, east, one o’clock, six o’clock. Wait. This works like a combination lock. That means it’s probably a three-digit key: west, east, sixteen o’clock—or, rather, four o’clock._

I continued to turn the wheel another ninety degrees clockwise until the Monokuma-headed spoke was facing the four o’clock position. “There it is again,” Hachise told me. 

“Perfect,” I said as I stepped away from the wheel and knelt next to her. Hachise took her ear from the floor and watched me pull upward on the carpet just past the line in the floor. As I’d hoped, a square trap door opened from the floor. A folded rope ladder fell from a crevice in the floor just past the hatch. 

“Ooh-ho-ho, what do we have here?” Hachise chortled. “Guys, check this out!” she called to the others. 

I descended the ladder into the room below. Ren, Yusuke, Noise, and Reiko followed a moment later. To our collective surprise, however, we found ourselves in the restaurant’s kitchen. “The secret passageway leads here?” Reiko observed with disbelief. 

“Could we perhaps have foregone the difficulty with the elevator if we had simply noticed it from the kitchen?” Yusuke wondered. 

“I don’t think so,” Morgana replied from the room overhead as he and Hachise observed the bottom of the trap door. “There’s a lock on this side of the hatch. You’d need a key to open it from the kitchen.” 

“Can’t the Ultimate Phantom Thief pick locks?” Noise chided as he elbowed Ren. 

“This one’s unpickable,” Morgana meowed with a shake of his small head. 

*Ding dong, dong ding*

“Ahem, this is your captain speaking,” Monokuma announced from a nearby monitor in the kitchen. “I’m tired of waiting, so I hope you’re ready. Please go through the red door on the deck of the _S.S. Titanokuma-A_. Puhuhu, I wonder if you’ve figured it out yet.” 

Noise climbed the rope ladder to push Miaya through the elevator back to the lower floor of the Ultimate Adventurer's lab. Hachise, Morgana, and the animatronic Monomi followed them while Reiko, Ren, Yusuke, and I exited the kitchen through the restaurant and made our way upstairs from there. The seven surviving students reunited by the red door on the deck, stepped through the threshold, and rode the elevator down to the trial grounds. 

Although we were descending with the same number of students as last time, the fact that less than half of us remained alive hung heavy in the air. The mastermind behind the Killing School Cruise, the person responsible for the death of Emiko Sakurai and so many others: Kudo-sensei, Hifumi, Kagami, Ann, Charlotte, Lucille, Kari, Haruki, Takamaru, and even Akechi, their own spy—was that person standing in the elevator with me? One way or another, I was determined to find the truth and put an end to this game, once and for all. 

 When the elevator came to a halt and its doors opened, each of us moved to our respective podiums. The stand behind Miaya’s podium was wide enough to accommodate her wheelchair, so the Ultimate Therapist held Monomi in her lap as she sat in her assigned position. Morgana, meanwhile, returned to his previous place atop Ann’s podium next to Ren. 

“Let’s begin with a basic explanation of the class trial,” Monokuma said from his chair once we were all in place. “Your votes will determine the results. If you can figure out ‘whodunnit,’ only the blackened will receive punishment, but if you pick the wrong one… then I’ll punish everyone _besides_ the blackened, and the one that deceived everyone else will graduate!” Today’s events had played out more quickly than I had anticipated. My body was still reeling from my extended stay in the Metaverse, and my head was spinning. 

Reiko: Let’s start by making sure we’re all on the same page here. 

Hachise: In the last trial, we confirmed that Akechi was Monokuma’s spy. 

Yusuke: He infiltrated our ranks under the guise of “Shiro” and faked his death. 

Morgana: He did that by cooperating with Monokuma to send us all to Kari’s Palace. 

Morgana: There, Emiko killed a cognitive version of him. 

Monomi: However, even though **Emiko only killed a cognition** … 

Noise: She still got executed like she’d committed an actual murder. 

Hachise: That means **Monokuma broke the rules** and executed someone under false charges. 

Ren: Emiko wasn’t executed. **She was murdered**. 

Yusuke: That means **the blackened is Monokuma**. 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Yusuke: What do you mean? 

Gale: Monokuma might be indirectly responsible, but in reality, there’s someone pulling the strings behind him. That person is Emiko’s real killer. 

Hachise: I wonder about that. 

Monomi: Huh? What do you mean? 

Hachise: Is there anyone really pulling the strings behind Monokuma? 

Noise: He’s an animatronic, ain’t he? 

Noise: Unless he’s an A.I., he ain’t movin’ around by himself. 

Yusuke: Are A.I. not simply the stuff of science fiction? 

Noise: That’s my coordinate. He’s just an animatronic. 

Hachise: I wouldn’t bet on it. 

Reiko: If he is an A.I., I think the person who built him would be the blackened. 

Hachise: I don’t think he’s an A.I. I’m saying he could very well be real. 

Noise: For fuck’s sake, you ever seen a real bear with those proportions? 

Hachise: No, I haven’t, but **I also hadn’t seen a talking cat** before yesterday. 

Morgana: Am I really that hard to believe? 

Hachise: You might look normal, but **you’re clearly not**. 

Hachise: Morgana might look more realistic than Monokuma…

Hachise: But **he’s just as strange**. 

**_Gale: I agree with that!_ **

Morgana: Don’t compare me to Monokuma! 

Gale: That’s not what I mean. I’m saying that Monokuma isn’t a simple animatronic. Just like you, he can move between the real world and the Metaverse. 

Hachise: Then let’s consider this line of reasoning. 

Hachise: You can think of it as humoring me if you don’t want to believe it. 

Hachise: Morgana, what exactly are you? 

Morgana: Um, well, I’m a being that was created in the Metaverse to help humanity. 

Hachise: Who created you? 

Morgana: His name is Igor, but I don’t think he has anything to do with this. 

Hachise: Hmm, this **‘Igor’ might be relevant** , but we’ll come back to him if he is. 

Hachise: For now, we know that beings such as Morgana can be created. 

Hachise: Morgana can talk, appears in a cartoonish state in the Metaverse, and can travel freely between reality and the Metaverse. 

Noise: That formula does sound familiar. 

Yusuke: Are you accusing Morgana of anything? 

Hachise: Not at all, I’m saying that if **Morgana can exist** , a similar being named ‘Monokuma’ could exist. 

Hachise: **There’s no ‘mastermind’** pulling the strings behind Morgana, right? 

Hachise: He’s just as alive as the rest of us, so Monokuma could be as well. 

Hachise: It’s possible that **there’s no human mastermind** at all. 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Hachise: Oh? Do you have evidence supporting that there’s a human mastermind? 

Gale: Think back to the control room we just visited. There was a secret passageway from there to the kitchen. As far as we know, Monokuma doesn’t need to eat. Even if he does, he’s been able to travel freely across the ship without using doors. He’s probably hopping in and out of the Metaverse. Why would Monokuma need a secret passageway? 

Hachise: That suggests that there is—or at least was—a human observing the game on Monokuma’s behalf, but that person might not be controlling Monokuma. 

Reiko: It could’ve been Akechi, right? 

Yusuke: Yes, as the spy, it would behoove him to be able to, well, spy on us. 

Noise: Then we’ll just do what we did last time somebody accused Monokuma. 

Monomi: What’s that? 

Noise: Proof by contradiction. 

Reiko: Remind me about that again. 

Noise: We assume Monokuma _isn’t_ the mastermind. Then, using that assumption, if we can prove every other possibility to be impossible, we basically prove that Monokuma _is_ the mastermind. 

Ren: Who else could it be? 

Noise: Last time, Monokuma said **there have only been 20 people** on the ship: the 16 of us who started, Kudo-sensei, Hachise, Morgana, and himself. 

Hachise: We shouldn’t trust that. 

Hachise: Monokuma would definitely lie to protect the mastermind. 

Monomi: Well, it does give us a place to start. 

Yusuke: Morgana would not be able to use a rope ladder. 

Yusuke: And, being a cat, he could simply stock up on cat food instead of accessing the kitchen. 

Yusuke: So, if we are using that passageway as evidence of a mastermind, **it would not be him**. 

Morgana: I would’ve hoped that was obvious, but thanks for sticking up for me. 

Noise: If it ain’t the cat, **that just leaves the 7 of us**. 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Monomi: There might be a twenty-first, but we should start with the people we know. 

Gale: No, even within the twenty people Monokuma listed, there are other possibilities. Remember that the spy was someone who faked his death. The mastermind might have done something similar. 

Noise: Are you sayin’ we got sent to another fuckin’ Palace? 

Reiko: I guess we should consider the possibility. 

Noise: Dammit, this alternate dimension bullshit makes things confusing. 

Hachise: Kari’s cognitions looked normal, right? 

Hachise: I heard from Morgana that her Palace crumbled just before her trial. 

Hachise: Doesn’t that mean anyone who died before then could have been a cognition? 

Yusuke: Only the second floor looked normal in her Palace, however. 

Ren: The first floor looked like a prison. 

Hachise: But that’s just Kari’s Palace. 

Hachise: What about everyone else’s? 

Morgana: Not everyone has a Palace. You do, and Kari did, but **no one else here does**. 

Morgana: We checked the other night. 

Hachise: What about the deceased? 

Hachise: Hifumi, Kagami, Emiko, Charlotte, Ann, Lucille, Haruki—any of them could’ve had a Palace. 

Morgana: Well, **we can’t really check** if they had one after they’ve died… 

Hachise: Now you see what I’m getting at. 

Morgana: I would say we could check the Phantom Thieves’ clothes, but those only change if the Palace owner perceives them as a threat. 

Hachise: Then **there’s no way to know** if we were in a Palace or not. 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Ren: Right, there is one other way. 

Gale: You all saw it in the last trial. Morgana transforms when he enters a Palace. He wasn’t in the pool when the cognitive Shiro was killed, but we can rule out any murder he was there for. 

Noise: Okay, cat, start talkin’. 

Morgana: Umm, **I was in Joker’s bag** when Kudo-sensei died, so that wasn’t in the Metaverse. 

Morgana: **I was in the dormitory** when Hifumi died, but I didn’t see her body because I got shut in Joker’s room. 

Morgana: **I couldn’t go to Kagami’s trial** because I was still shut in the room. 

Morgana: **I was exploring Kari’s Palace** during Shiro’s supposed murder and Emiko’s execution. 

Morgana: But, I saw the rest of them. 

Morgana: I was there when Lucille’s body was discovered. 

Morgana: And **I saw Charlotte and Lady Ann** , and I was in Joker’s bag during Kari’s execution. 

Reiko: We might be able to rule out one more then. 

Noise: Really now? 

Reiko: If **Morgana was there** when Lucille’s body was discovered, that means he saw Kagami’s body too. 

Reiko: Remember? Hachise faked her death using Kagami’s body. 

Monomi: So, if Morgana saw that body in the real world, **we can be sure of Kagami’s death** too. 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Reiko: Huh? Cognitions can’t come to the real world, right? Then, if a cognitive Kagami was killed, where did that body come from? 

Gale: It could have been Kagami’s real body, but that’s not necessarily true. Hachise got that body from the Ultimate Survivor's lab, which is a morgue connected to Kari’s lab. The morgue contains the bodies of everyone who has died, but the bodies aren’t necessarily authentic. 

Hachise: That’s right. When the cognitive Shiro was killed, there was a body that looked like his in the morgue. 

Hachise: It was replaced with Akechi’s body after the last trial, but the fact remains that the mastermind is capable of populating the morgue with fakes. 

Reiko: Then it’s possible **Kagami’s body was one of these fakes**. 

Monomi: Just to be clear, these **fakes aren’t cognitions** , right? They’re real? 

Hachise: Yeah, the fake Shiro was an actual dead body that had been altered to look like his. 

Noise: Fuckin’, between the alternate realities and now a dead doppelganger, how many fake Shiros are there? 

Hachise: We don’t know what the mastermind is capable of, so we should assume they have deceased look-alikes ready to replace any of our bodies as needed. 

Yusuke: At the very least, if they had planned to fake their own death, I should think they would prepare a look-alike of themselves. 

Noise: Hold on. If there was a fake Shiro look-alike on the ship in addition to Akechi, doesn’t that mean the total number of residents r was such that r > 20?

Monokuma: Bodies don’t count toward the total number of the ship’s inhabitants. 

Monokuma: That Shiro look-alike was dead long before he set foot on this boat! 

Morgana: I wonder if there’s one that looks like me. 

Monomi: It would be tough to find one that looked like Charlotte! 

Reiko: Let’s focus on the matter at hand. 

Reiko: **We can’t determine the authenticity** of the bodies from Hachise’s lab. 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Hachise: Right, we do have some options. 

Gale: Hachise, were you able to authenticate any of the bodies? 

Hachise: I did. They might still be imposters like Shiro, but I can at least check if the bodies were the same people who were aboard the ship. 

Monomi: You used Kari’s lab, right? 

Hachise: That’s right. Kari took fingerprints from Lucille, Charlotte, Ann, Haruki, Takamaru, and herself. 

Hachise: Unfortunately, Kudo-sensei, Hifumi, Kagami, and Emiko were killed before Kari could collect their prints. 

Yusuke: We are certain of Kudo-sensei’s death, however, as Morgana bore witness to it, yes? 

Noise: Tch, figures. 

Hachise: Correct, we can assume he’s really dead even if the body isn’t authentic. 

Hachise: Furthermore, I found a strand of Hifumi’s hair in the Ultimate Shogi Player's lab. 

Hachise: I ran a DNA test, and Hifumi’s body in the morgue matches the hair from her lab. 

Reiko: Not to sound like Haruki, but could the mastermind have planted that hair? 

Yusuke: I assure you **Hifumi was not the mastermind**. 

Hachise: I think we can rule her out too. The corpses are preserved cryogenically. 

Hachise: That kind of storage causes cellular damage, but the hair from Hifumi’s lab showed no signs of that damage. 

Morgana: What about the others? 

Hachise: I couldn’t find anything for Kagami or Emiko, but **I was able to verify Akechi**. 

Noise: How’d you do that? 

Hachise: Come on, Noise. I thought you would know for sure. 

Hachise: **We have something that belongs to him** , after all. 

**_Gale: I agree with that!_ **

Yusuke: Do we really? 

Gale: Yeah, Noise and Miaya found his e-Handbook hidden away in the girls’ locker room. I’m guessing they showed Hachise, and she collected prints from that, right? 

Hachise: Correct, on the way to Gale’s lab, I compared some prints we found on Akechi’s handbook with prints I took from the bodies in the morgue, and they matched Akechi’s. 

Reiko: That covers Hifumi and Akechi. What about everyone else? 

Hachise: Oh, the rest were easy thanks to Kari’s collection. 

Hachise: Charlotte, Lucille, Kari, Haruki, and Takamaru all matched. 

Hachise: The fingerprints on their bodies were the same as the ones Kari collected. 

Morgana: **You forgot Lady Ann**! 

Yusuke: I assume hers matched as well. 

Hachise: Oh, you’re right. **I did forget her**! 

Hachise: That’s because her prints didn’t match! 

Ren: … 

Yusuke: What? 

Morgana: That’s a lie! It has to be! 

Hachise: Nope, it’s the truth. Every corpse’s fingerprints matched except hers. 

Hachise: That means the body in storage _isn’t_ the Ann that was aboard this ship. 

Reiko: Then, is Ann the mastermind? 

Yusuke: Preposterous! 

Ren: She would never do that! 

Morgana: I won’t let you slander Lady Ann that way! 

Hachise: I’m not saying she’s the mastermind. 

Hachise: It’s possible **the Ann in storage is real**. 

Hachise: Who’s to say which is the real and which is the fake?

Hachise: Maybe **the mastermind impersonated Ann**. 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Hachise: You never knew Ann before this. How can you be sure she was the real one? Akechi had us believing he was the real Shiro, after all. 

Gale: None of us knew Shiro, but I don’t think Ann’s comrades would fall for an imposter. Even if they could, I’m fairly certain that Ann was real because of her Persona. 

Monomi: Her “Persona”? 

Morgana: A Persona is a power that some Metaverse users awaken to. 

Yusuke: Personas are unique reflections of one’s inner self. 

Ren: In the Metaverse, Ann had the same Persona we’d seen her use before. 

Gale: That means the Ann that was aboard this ship with us was real. 

Morgana: And the real Lady Ann would never mastermind this awful game! 

Reiko: I don’t want to believe it either, but how else to you explain the body? 

A number of possibilities crossed my mind. Fragments of ideas became syllables that eventually formed words. If Ann wasn’t the mastermind, there was only one option I could think of. 

Gale: It could be a **red herring**. 

Noise: That’s a little too convenient. 

Gale: Yeah, you’re exactly right. It is convenient that the fingerprints don’t match. Convenient for the mastermind, that is. Hachise said we should assume the mastermind has doppelgangers of all of us prepared. If they switched one of the bodies in the morgue and left the others, they could throw suspicion off themselves. They must have figured we’d use the equipment next door to authenticate them, after all. 

Noise: That’s still just a hypothesis. 

Gale: I know. The unmatching fingerprints mean we can’t verify Ann’s body, but Morgana saw her, right? That puts her in the same category as Kudo-sensei. We can’t verify whether his body’s authentic, but Morgana saw him too. Besides, we can’t authenticate Kagami’s or Emiko’s bodies either. It’s way too soon to start pointing fingers. 

Reiko: That’s true. We also haven’t proven that anyone here isn’t the mastermind. 

Hachise: Then let’s take a step back. 

Hachise: What criteria would someone need to meet to be the mastermind? 

Monomi: They would need full control of the ship’s traps and explosives. 

Reiko: They could do that using the control room in the aftcastle. 

Hachise: That could be anyone, so long as **they had the key to the secret door** in the kitchen ceiling. 

Noise: They’d need to be controllin’ Monokuma. 

Yusuke: It is possible instead that they are in league with Monokuma, or perhaps they created him. 

Hachise: Since **we don’t know what Monokuma is** or how he’s controlled, that doesn’t narrow down the possibilities either. 

Noise: Whatever, they’re callin’ the shots behind the little bastard. 

Reiko: They would need the resources to modify this ship and kidnap us. 

Hachise: We can’t rule out anyone there. We have no idea how far back this plan goes. 

Monomi: Um, they would need to be a totally heartless jerk. 

Hachise: We should assume **the mastermind is a high-functioning sociopath**. 

Hachise: They’re probably perfectly capable of hiding their true nature from others. 

Yusuke: They would need to know the identity of every blackened. 

Hachise: Again, **they could access the security cameras** from the control room. 

**_Gale: No, that’s wrong!_ **

Hachise: We weren’t able to access the controls, so you can’t prove those monitors don’t receive feed from the security camera. 

Gale: That wouldn’t be enough, though. Think back to the last case. The mastermind knew Akechi killed Takamaru. Sure, Akechi was the only one who could cause psychotic breakdowns, but could they _prove_ it wasn’t me? They don’t have security cameras in the Metaverse. 

Yusuke: True, even we had to take a leap of faith in the end. 

Hachise: Monokuma probably just agreed with us to keep the game going. 

Reiko: I doubt that. If that’s all Monokuma wanted, why’d he execute your whole class? 

Noise: Plus, there’s that shit with Takamaru. How’d they know he didn’t crash the plane himself? 

Reiko: Anyone who knows Takamaru knows **he wouldn’t do that**! 

Noise: Sure, but can you _prove_ it? There’s no evidence. 

Monomi: **There weren’t any security cameras** or similar devices in the plane. 

Monomi: If there were, I would have tried to use them to video chat with Takamaru instead of relying on audio. 

Reiko: The mastermind knew Akechi had killed him because they were in cahoots. 

Reiko: Akechi practically admitted to it at the end. 

Hachise: There’s no reason Monokuma had to know who the blackened was beforehand. 

Hachise: That execution could have been used on anyone. 

Morgana: Maybe **the mastermind is a Persona user**. 

Morgana: Certain Personas allow people to observe information about the Metaverse. 

Noise: That still doesn’t explain that the plane was a blind spot. 

Hachise: It doesn’t matter who the blackened was. 

Hachise: Monokuma decides what’s right. **He might as well just guess**. 

**_Gale: I agree with that!_ **

Yusuke: Then, the mastermind need not know the identities of the blackened? 

Gale: No, I think the mastermind does know, but what if they didn’t need the security cameras? There are other blind spots too, besides the plane. The shower stalls in the locker rooms are another example, and even if they have a Persona that lets them observe a Palace in the Metaverse, the Metaverse contains multiple Palaces and the remnants of Mementos. I don’t think they could observe all of them and the real world at once. 

Monomi: Kagami did say that no one person could sort through all of that footage while blending in with us. 

Reiko: What are you getting at? 

Gale: What if the mastermind didn’t need proof of the identities of the blackened? What if they could just guess? 

Noise: Bullshit! That doesn’t make any sense!

Gale: No, that kind of guesswork would be possible for one person. 

Gale: **Emiko Sakurai**. 

Hachise: The Ultimate Lucky Student. 

Gale: Noise, Miaya, Reiko—you were her classmates. Level with me. If Emiko put the names of every student on slips of paper in a hat and then drew one at random, would she get the killer? 

Monomi: She… Well, she… 

Noise: God dammit… 

Reiko: She’d get it every time. It wouldn’t fail, not even once. 

Yusuke: You are suggesting our innocence or guilt could be decided by lot! 

**_Monomi: I won’t let you!_ **

Monomi jumped from Miaya’s lap onto the podium and pointed her paw at me. The Ultimate Therapist frantically typed into her handbook as her animatronic avatar strung together an argument. 

Monomi: Emiko can’t be the mastermind! 

Monomi: I know Hachise couldn’t make sure the body in the morgue was hers. 

Monomi: But Emiko wasn’t an imposter! 

Monomi: In therapy, she knew things only the real Emiko would know. 

Monomi: And she was definitely the Ultimate Lucky Student. 

Monomi: I could tell when we played boardgames! 

Monomi: Emiko was real, and she dissolved into acid! 

Gale: I believe you, Miaya. 

Gale: The Emiko aboard the ship with us was the real deal, not an imposter like Shiro. 

Gale: But that doesn’t mean she really died. 

Gale: Morgana wasn’t in the trial grounds, so we don’t know if her execution was genuine. 

Monomi: That isn’t true! 

Monomi: That was definitely the real Emiko! 

Monomi: She couldn’t have just been a cognition in someone’s Palace! 

Monomi: She argued and argued because **she wanted to know** why Shiro attacked her! 

Monomi: There’s no way **that was just a fake**! 

Monomi: She also admitted to being the killer. 

Monomi: How could someone’s cognition of her know something only she knew? 

Monomi: And she said that **she loved you**! 

Monomi: But **no one except her knew** about the love letter! 

**_Gale: I’ll slice through that argument!_ **

Monomi: If any of us had known, we would have said so sooner! 

Gale: There is someone else. Akechi knew about the fake love letter because he wrote it. We could have been in Akechi’s Palace. 

Morgana: Sorry, that’s wrong. 

Gale: Huh? 

Morgana: Akechi was a Persona user. If a Palace owner awakens to their Persona, their Shadow disappears, and the Palace crumbles. Basically, you can’t have both a Persona and a Palace. 

Monomi: There! That proves it! 

Hachise: There might be another way. 

Yusuke: What do you mean? 

Hachise: We’ve been using Akechi’s example to determine if someone faked their death, but why would the mastermind use the same trick twice? 

Reiko: They certainly don’t lack creativity. 

Hachise: I’m saying we should consider that the mastermind might have faked their death without the use of Palaces and cognitions. 

Noise: That rules out Kudo-sensei. You can’t really fake being turned to Swiss cheese. 

Monomi: Well, Gale, is there another way someone could have faked their death? 

I listed all of the deaths in my mind. I remembered the various executions and Monokuma Files surrounding them. I considered which had to be real, and which could conceivably have been staged. Of the possibilities, one stood out to me as particularly suspicious. 

Gale: The **Wheel of Despair**. 

Yusuke: Yes, I believe our situation could be described as such. 

Gale: No, that was the name of Emiko’s execution. The wheel landed on acid. Even if it was random, the mastermind would know her arrow would land on the free space, which is why it was changed to acid. Then, Emiko was dropped into a vat of acid and dissolved—or so we thought. 

Monomi: We saw her bones, Gale! How do you fake that? 

Right, those bones were the key. They certainly seemed real, but at that point, how much did we really know? More ideas flowed through my head. I remembered the scene of Emiko’s demise, and I considered every piece of the image. Finally, my mind focused on something: the vat. That was the cornerstone of the execution. If the vat was suspicious, what was the trick? Finally, the answer came to me. 

Gale: The vat had a **false bottom**. We saw _some_ bones, but we don’t know if they were Emiko’s. Unlike the vat used for my execution, we couldn’t see into the vat of acid. The vat could have had two compartments. Emiko was dropped into the top compartment, which was harmless. It was green and fizzy, but we only thought it was acid because of the wheel. The bottom compartment, however, contained actual acid. An imposter corpse—like the placeholder for Shiro and the fake Ann in Hachise’s lab—could have been placed in the bottom compartment and dissolved. The contents of the bottom compartment were then spilled out for us to see, and the water level of the top compartment was lowered at the same time. 

Noise: That makes sense, but it’s still just a conjecture. Can we actually prove the vat was rigged? 

Gale: Monokuma, can we investigate the vat? 

Monokuma: Hmm? 

Gale: If we find evidence of a second compartment like I’m thinking, that would definitely raise suspicion. 

Monokuma: Puhuhu, I wonder if you realize what you’re insinuating. 

Hachise: Well, Monokuma, can we see the vat, or are you worried we’ll find the truth? 

Monokuma: Worried? I have nothing to worry about at all. 

Morgana: Oh yeah? Just you wait! Once we uncover the mastermind, we’ll—

Monokuma: You’ll do what, exactly? 

Monokuma: I was amused by watching you all argue for a bit, but I’m bored now. 

Monokuma: This trial was supposed to determine the blackened who murdered Emiko. 

Monokuma: However, in the case of Emiko Sakurai, there is no blackened. 

Monokuma: Because, as you oh-so-cleverly guessed… 

Emiko: I’m not dead. 

Our collective gaze instantly shifted to a single point. Standing behind Emiko’s podium, there was no longer a picture sporting Emiko’s likeness. Instead, Emiko, the Ultimate Lucky Student herself, had appeared in the flesh, as expressionless as ever. 

Emiko: The mastermind didn’t kill me, so there’s no reason for this trial. It’s pointless. 

Monomi: Emiko! 

Miaya’s eyes lit up with joy, and she started to roll backward in her chair to move away from her podium, but Hachise reached out and grabbed her wheelchair to stop her. 

Hachise: Wait, Mia! 

Noise: Emiko… 

Reiko: Don’t tell me. 

Gale: All this time, I thought you—

Emiko: You really bought it, huh? Figures… 

Emiko: Did you think I fell for you just because you said I could do things without my luck? 

Emiko: You’re pretty gullible, or maybe I just got lucky. 

Hachise: I’ll just be blunt about this. Are you the mastermind? 

Emiko: Yeah, I guess I am. 

Noise: You bitch! What the fuck do you mean, “I guess I am”? 

Noise: Our classmates, our sensei, our friends—they’re fuckin’ dead! 

Reiko: Takamaru… Did you… 

Emiko: That was Akechi-senpai. I had nothing to do with it. 

Reiko: Don’t act all innocent! 

Monomi: Guys, stop. This has to be fake, right? 

Monomi: The real Emiko would never do this! 

Emiko: You think I’m a fake? 

Emiko sighed as she reached into her dress’s pocket and produced a revolver. The other students and I ducked behind our podiums as the sound of a gunshot rang through the air. I peeked over the podium and saw that she had fired the round harmlessly skyward. 

Emiko: It’s real, see? 

Emiko showed us the inside of the revolver’s cylinder. Aside from the round she had just fired, the firearm was full. Then, she spun the gun’s cylinder and pointed it at her own head. 

Gale: Emiko, wait! 

She pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. The cylinder had landed on the single slot that had already been fired. 

Emiko: I can try again if you’re still not sure. 

Hachise: I think we get the picture. 

Emiko: Then, what will you do? Do you still want revenge? 

Reiko: … 

Emiko: Are you planning to kill me? 

Emiko: Even if you do, what will you do after that? 

Emiko: You’ll be stranded here at sea. No one besides me can control the boat. 

Emiko: You wouldn’t accomplish anything by beating me. 

Meta-Nav: Beginning navigation. 

The handbook in my pocket buzzed with a familiar synthetic voice. I wondered if Emiko or Monokuma had activated it remotely. Regardless, the world shifted and changed around me, and I heard Emiko step away from her podium. 

In moments, we were back in Hachise’s Palace, and my clothes changed to their Metaversal form. Monokuma hovered overhead in his chair again, and those of us who remained were back in stone balconies above the gladiatorial arena. Emiko was nowhere to be seen, and Mona was standing alongside Joker in the latter’s balcony. 

The other students and I stood up in our balconies, and I saw the remaining balconies were now populated by stone effigies. Statues of Hifumi, Kagami, Charlotte, Ann, Kari, Haruki, Takamaru, and Akechi stood at their respective balconies, which corresponded to the placement of our podiums in the trial grounds. A statue of Lucille occupied Emiko’s balcony since Hachise was filling her normal position. 

**_Monokuma: Despair will never die!_ **

Noise: Don’t fuckin’ tell me… 

Monokuma: That’s right. After a long hiatus, it’s time for the return of the cruise’s **morphenomenal trial grounds**!

A familiar key appeared in Monokuma’s paw from a puff of smoke, and a gear unfolded from the front of his floating chair. The monochromatic mascot inserted the key and twisted it, after which our balconies glowed with an outline of blue light. The stone podiums detached themselves from the colosseum and began to float into the air. The statues of our deceased friends—Hachise’s cognitions of the departed students—all stood on one side while the survivors stood on the other. Just like I had been freed from my own stone prison, the stone around each cognition cracked and crumbled away. Was this an attempt to psych us out? Regardless, it was just another trial for us to overcome. _Is there any point to defeating the mastermind?_

Charlotte: There’s no hope l-left anymore. You’ve already **lost** too much. 

Gale: No, that’s wrong. As long as we’re alive, we haven’t **lost** yet. 

Hifumi: It’s already **game** over. The Black Knight has seized control of Camelot. 

Noise: No, the **game** isn’t over, but we can end it if we put a stop to the mastermind. 

Takamaru: How the hell would you get to land? My beautiful **plane** ’s already been demolished. 

Reiko: We don’t need the **plane**. There has to be a way to take control of the ship. 

Kari: If you **kill** her, you’ll lose the only person who can control the ship. Just follow the rules. 

Hachise: Even if we can’t escape, I’m definitely going to **kill** her. She can’t be allowed to live. 

Haruki: Hahaha! _Très bête!_ Did you forget _we’re_ the ones who killed your **friends**? 

Morgana: The blackened were people’s **friends** too. The mastermind manipulated them! 

Akechi: Were we really manipulated, or did the mastermind reveal our true **hearts**? 

Ren: Corrupting people’s **hearts** isn’t the same as revealing them. 

Ann: Is that what the **Phantom Thieves** did to Kari’s heart? Corrupted it? 

Yusuke: The **Phantom Thieves** lead stray hearts to redemption, not innocent hearts to murder. 

Kagami: You’d call me **innocent**? I killed your friend and would’ve done the same to you. 

Monomi: No one is completely **innocent** , but that doesn’t make them evil either! 

Lucille: Then how can you be certain the **mastermind** is truly evil? 

Gale: I don’t know about the **mastermind** , but this killing game is evil. It needs to end now! 

**_This is our answer: FULL COUNTER!_ **

Meta-Nav: Returning to real world. Thank you for your hard work.

The stone balconies beneath us became our podiums again, and the colosseum transformed back into the trial grounds. Emiko had returned to her own podium, and Monokuma was still overlooking the trial from his chair on high. 

“This fake trial has gone on long enough,” Emiko sighed as she examined her revolver from a few different angles. “End the killing game? As long as you’re on this ship, it’ll never end.” Emiko pointed her gun around the grounds at each of us in turn. “Unless, that is, you want to try something stupid.” 

“As a matter of fact…” I muttered under my breath, “I do!” 

I struck out with my red whip, which snapped the handgun from Emiko’s grip. She yelped a little as she pulled her hand back from the pain. “Get her!” Reiko commanded, and the trial grounds sprung into action. 

Hachise practically jumped over her podium as she wrapped her remaining hand around Emiko’s neck. Ren gripped the mastermind’s wrist as she tried to take her e-Handbook from her pocket. Then he tossed Emiko’s handbook to Miaya for safekeeping. Yusuke grabbed her other arm and held it behind her back. Morgana darted to the gun and pushed it away from Emiko’s reach. Noise climbed onto his podium and kicked off it to pounce onto Monokuma, whom he tackled to the ground, chair and all. 

“Hey! Just what do you think you’re doing?” Monokuma protested. 

“Well, we can’t have you adding any variance to their equation, now can we?” Noise snickered. 

“Need I remind you that _I_ am your headmaster?” Monokuma growled. “And violence against the headmaster is _strictly prohibited_!”

In that instant, a cluster of thick, metal blades sprung from the floor beneath Noise and Monokuma. “Noise!” I shouted as the sound of metal cutting flesh echoed through the room. Slowly, steadily, blood dripped down onto Monokuma. Noise, however, was still standing. 

The Ultimate Mathematician had raised his left arm high above his head. He had bent his right knee to a 45° angle and raised his foot half a meter over the floor. His body had turned about 90°, and his back was bent backward at about 30°. The result of this odd posture was that the blades had almost completely missed him. One sword had lightly grazed his abdomen, from which the blood dripped. A small scrape marked his left shin. Otherwise, however, he was unscathed. 

“Oh, you needn’t remind me of anything, you son of a bitch,” Noise taunted as Monokuma gulped. “I remember everything: every angle, every measurement, every velocity—I burned the image of my sensei’s corpse into my fucking mind. I haven’t dreamt of anything else since. When I saw you acting all high and mighty from that chair, I figured you had the same trap protecting you as when we 1st met, and it looks like I was right on the money. My sensei might have been an idiot for bum-rushing you, but he was still 1 hell of a teacher.” 

“U-Um, Emiko,” Monokuma cried, “I-I-I think it’s time for us to go!”

“You’re not going anywhere, bitch,” Hachise growled at Emiko through her braces. 

“Really, now?” In that moment, I saw something strange: something unnatural. Emiko, the ever-straight-faced student, smiled. 

Using the arm Ren was holding, the Ultimate Lucky Student elbowed her spectacled captor in the side. The Phantom Thief recoiled with pain as she apparently struck his gunshot wound. Then, with her arm freed, she reached back into her pocket and produced a red smartphone. “Look out! That’s Akechi’s—”

“Beginning navigation,” a familiar voice rang from the smartphone despite Morgana’s warning, and in a moment, Emiko vanished. 

“We need to go after her!” Hachise screamed in frustration. 

I took my handbook from my pocket and swiped through the apps, but the Metaverse Navigator was gone. “She deleted my Meta-Nav!” I shared. 

“There was one on her handbook, but it’s gone now too!” Monomi announced on Miaya’s behalf. 

“Don’t think I’m going to let you off easy, Shoichi Noizu,” Monokuma growled from under the Ultimate Mathematician’s foot as the swords around him retracted into the floor. “All of you attacked this cruise’s headmasters, and that means all of you are going to be punished!” 

One of the trial grounds’ walls opened, and dozens of red lights illuminated the darkness beyond. A legion of mechanical Monokumas—each more than twice the height of the original—marched into the trial grounds. “Shit…” Noise cursed. 

“Let’s give it everything we’ve got!” Monokuma proclaimed as bladed claws emerged from the army’s forepaws. “It’s **_punishment time_**!” 

With that, the original Monokuma vanished, and the army of his robotic doppelgangers charged at us. “Get to the elevator!” Reiko instructed, and all of us rushed to the lift. Yusuke ushered Ren onward despite the new bloodstain on the latter’s shirt, and Noise grabbed Miaya’s wheelchair to push her forward when the Ultimate Therapist couldn’t roll fast enough. 

The elevator closed behind us as the Monokumas rampaged at us, and, to my relief, the lift began to ascend toward the deck. “Alright, what’s our plan?” Reiko asked the group. 

“If we can get back to the control room, we might be able to get control of the ship,” Monomi suggested on Miaya’s behalf. 

“Perhaps knowledge of the mastermind’s identity could give us some clue to the password,” Yusuke speculated. 

I started to make a suggestion, but I was startled when a set of bladed claws tore through the bottom of the elevator. The lift suddenly came to a halt as more claws tore into the elevator’s base, and the swarm of Monokumas ripped a hole through the middle of the floor. “Son of a bitch!” Noise exclaimed as he kicked a few Monokumas back down the hole. 

I stepped forward to kick another Monokuma back down, and the machine was sent plummeting down the shaft, but to my dismay, I saw the swarm was hot on our trail. Clusters of Monokumas had climbed the elevator’s shaft and stacked themselves atop one another. Some were digging their claws into the bottom of the elevator to hold it in place while others clung together to make bridges for their legion to approach the hole. “This won’t work! There are too many!” I observed. 

“Hachise, do you have any explosives?” Reiko asked the Ultimate Survivor. 

“Not enough to take down that many,” Hachise replied with a grimace as she caught a glimpse of the swarm through the hole. 

“Know your fuckin’ place!” Noise shouted as he kicked down a couple more. “More are coming!” he warned. 

“What about this?” Reiko asked as she produced Hachise’s electromagnetic detonator from her cleavage. 

“It spoofs an electromagnetic signal that triggers the ship’s bombs,” Hachise explained, “but its range is limited. If there’s a bomb near or above the elevator, we’ll be blown to pieces or dropped.” 

“Noise, are the Monokumas’ numbers concentrated at all?” Reiko inquired. 

“Most of ‘em are at the bottom of the shaft; they’re still filtering in from the trial grounds,” Noise analyzed, “but they’re rising fast. If the majority of ‘em get here, we’re screwed.” 

“Then we just need to trigger an explosion down there,” Reiko deduced. 

“Is there some kind of remote for the detonator?” Yusuke wondered. 

“No, idiot, the detonator _is_ the remote!” Hachise corrected. 

“Alright, that settles it then,” Reiko decided. “Guys, take care.” 

“Reiko, stop. What’s your plan?” Monomi asked. 

“There isn’t time for a plan,” Reiko replied. “I’ve got to go now or never.” 

“Wait a goddamn second. You don’t just get to go decidin’ this shit on your own!” Noise protested. 

“Yes, I do,” Reiko corrected, “because I’m your student council president.” 

“Reiko, don’t!” I objected, but the Ultimate Thespian didn’t heed my warning. 

Instead, she jumped through the hole the Monokumas had torn in the bottom of the elevator. Gripping the detonator tightly, she pressed the button on its head just before colliding with the swarm of Monokumas below. A pair of bombs at the bottom of the elevator shaft exploded from the walls. 

The bulk of the swarm was engulfed in flames—along with Reiko—and the stragglers higher up fell down the shaft as their footholds collapsed and the shaft was violently shaken. To our collective relief, the elevator held in place, and after a moment, it resumed its ascent. “Damn it!” Noise cursed as he punched the wall. “What happened to that shit about becoming Ultimate Survivors?” 

“We can’t let ourselves get cornered again,” Hachise said solemnly. “I was only able to make the one detonator.” 

“ _That’s_ what you’re worried about?” Noise accused as he gripped Hachise’s collar. 

“Put me down,” Hachise instructed. “If we fight each other, all of us lose.” 

Noise bared his fangs at the brace-faced girl, but he dropped her regardless. The Phantom Thieves and I were at a loss for words, and Miaya didn’t type anything. After a long silence, the elevator reached the deck. We stepped through the crimson doors into the open air. 

“Monokuma won’t give up that easily,” Hachise presumed. “There’ll be more where those things came from.” 

“It seems he truly is determined to execute us all,” Yusuke agreed. 

“Well then, I know what I have to do,” Hachise sighed. “I’m going to the Ultimate Physicist's lab.” 

“What’s down there?” I asked. 

“A bomb I made,” Hachise answered, “I put it together last night after the trial.” 

“You stop right the fuck there,” Noise interrupted. “I’ve had more than enough bombs for 1 day already.” 

“This one is bigger,” Hachise giggled, “big enough to sink the whole ship.” 

“Hachise, what are you saying?” Monomi asked for Miaya. 

“Didn’t you notice?” Hachise asked as her smile widened. “Monokuma said he’d execute us all, just like he did to my classmates, but he didn’t use the bombs. Instead, he sent that swarm after us. Why would he even need those things? Wouldn’t the bombs be more reliable?” 

“I suppose, but…” Yusuke started. 

“It’s because, unlike the _Titanokuma-B_ , he can’t blow this ship up,” Hachise deduced, “because Emiko’s on it. She’ll drown if someone sinks the ship, so that’s exactly what I intend to do.” 

“In case you need a reminder, that’d kill all of _us_ too!” Noise shouted. 

“And you!” Monomi added. 

“Why should I care?” Hachise shrieked out of the blue. “Monokuma, Emiko—they’re going to kill us all, so the least I can do is take them down with us. As for all of you, you don’t matter. Until today, most of you probably thought _I_ was the mastermind. I know at least one of you did.” 

“What makes you think Monokuma will let you do this?” I asked. “Won’t he just disable the bomb before you can get to it?” 

“He can’t,” Hachise asserted. “The bomb’s rigged to go off the moment anyone tampers with it. Of course, that includes Monokuma.” 

“If you think we’re going to just let you blow us to hell—”

Noise was interrupted by the sound of a gunshot. Hachise was holding a revolver—the same one I had whipped from Emiko’s hand. A bloody hole had appeared in Noise’s left arm. 

“ _Fuck!_ ” the Ultimate Mathematician screamed. 

“No,” Hachise answered his unfinished question, “I don’t suppose you will.” 

Hachise pointed the gun threateningly toward me when she noticed me reaching for my whip. I put my hands in the air as a sign of surrender while Noise continued cursing and fell onto his knees. He was gripping his arm in his right hand and glaring at Hachise with tears in his eyes. Miaya helped Noise remove his jacket and was frantically trying to use it to bandage his arm. “Hachise, think about this,” Ren said as he and Yusuke held their hands in the air as well. 

“I have,” Hachise replied. “Don’t try to stop me.” 

Without taking her sights off us, Hachise descended the stairs below the deck of the ship. Then, I heard her begin sprinting. “Get off me!” Noise shouted as he shoved off Miaya and forced himself to his feet. 

“What are you planning to do?” Yusuke asked. 

“What the hell do you think? I’m gonna stop her, dumbass,” Noise bit back. “She surprised me with that gun, but I’ve taken down people who were packin’ before.” 

“Is there anything we can do?” I asked Ren and Yusuke. The two looked at each other for a moment before turning back to me. 

“I’ll go to her Palace,” Morgana said as he poked his head out of Ren’s bag. I hadn’t noticed his return to the pack, but I was relieved that he hadn’t been left in the trial grounds. “It won’t be easy, but I can try to steal her Treasure. This situation's bound to be as potent as any calling card. If I can trigger a change of heart, she might not set off the bomb.” 

“Can you do it alone?” Yusuke asked. 

“Honestly, I don’t think so,” Morgana admitted, “but if I don’t try, we might all die. I can’t let that happen.”

A sudden buzzing alerted all of us to something new. Ren reached into his pocket and retrieved his e-Handbook, which was buzzing furiously. He touched the screen to open an app on it. “Can anyone hear me?” a familiar voice asked from the handbook. 

“Futaba!” Morgana and Yusuke exclaimed in unison as they peered over Ren’s shoulders. 

“Shh! Codenames!” the voice called back. “Call me Alibaba!” 

“Joker! Fox! Mona! Oh, thank God you’re okay!” another voice—Morgiana’s, I believed—exclaimed in relief. 

“It is a miracle!” Cassim’s voice proclaimed. 

“How are you doing this?” Yusuke asked the handbook. 

“Oh, yeah, I guess I forgot to mention that to you,” I admitted. 

“Mention what?” Ren asked. 

“I’ll explain later,” Alibaba said. “Basically, I used the malware I had installed on Akechi’s phone as a backdoor into Monokuma’s network. He’s been blocking me at every turn, but he finally quit for some reason, so I was able to install this modified copy of the Meta-Nav onto your handbook.” 

“Does it work?” Ren asked. 

“Yeah, it’s the same as any other Meta-Nav,” Alibaba claimed. “What’s going on? I haven’t been able to access any security camera feed since this morning.” 

“Long story short, Emiko’s the mastermind, and Hachise’s trying to blow up the ship to kill her—even if it means taking out the rest of us too,” Morgana summarized. 

“We must trigger a change of heart in Hachise posthaste!” Yusuke enthused. 

“Then what are you waiting for?” Alibaba asked. “Get going!” 

“Take me with you,” I requested. “I know I’m still recovering, but you’ll need all the help you can get.” 

“Right,” Ren agreed before he turned to Noise and Miaya, “leave the rest to us.” 

“Like hell,” Noise bit back, “you guys try to stop her in that alternate reality. I’ll see if I can stop her in this world. We can’t afford to lose if you fuck this up, and maybe 1 of us can slow her down for the other.” 

“Then let’s quit wasting time,” Ren said before activating his Meta-Nav. 

Pushing Miaya down the stairs to the first floor a bit forcefully, Noise darted off. The rest of us, meanwhile, entered the Metaverse. Morgana jumped out of Ren’s bag, and after a moment, we found ourselves in an unfamiliar stone hallway. Joker, Fox, Mona, and I all appeared in our Metaversal garments, and Alibaba’s voice rang from Joker’s handbook: “Ranger made it part of the way to the Treasure when he was here before,” Alibaba explained, “so I have enough data from Prometheus to get you there from here.” 

“Time is of the essence,” Fox reminded us, and we dashed down the hallway. Following Alibaba’s instructions, we navigated the Palace’s labyrinthine interior while avoiding Shadows that patrolled its corridors. Before long, we came to the large door that had previously been blocked by a barrier of light. 

“There used to be a barrier here,” I informed the group, “but it seems like it’s gone.” 

“We found it too,” Mona shared. 

“What do you think it was?” Fox wondered aloud. 

“It was probably the door to the Ultimate Survivor's lab,” I guessed. “Until this morning, only she had been there, and it only opened for her, but she let me in when we were investigating.” 

“Let’s go,” Joker said as he opened the door. I was surprised that I recognized the interior. Within, I saw the dark room where I had been turned to stone alongside Hachise’s petrified cognitions. The cognitions of our fellow students were gone, but the fifteen students from Class B, Kudo-sensei, and another woman—likely Fujikawa-sensei—remained. 

“It is a dead end,” Fox observed as the room seemed to have no other exits. 

“That can’t be right,” Mona meowed. “The Treasure’s close. I can smell it.” 

“Prometheus is detecting something too,” Alibaba agreed. 

“Focus…” Ren said to himself as he concentrated and seemed to analyze the room. After a moment, he approached the statue of Fujikawa-sensei and pulled down on her arm. The arm turned at the shoulder like a lever, and a section of the wall subsequently opened to reveal a secret passage. 

“That’s our leader!” Morgiana cheered from Joker’s handbook. 

“Come on,” Joker beckoned as he gestured toward the passageway. 

“H-H-H-Hold on!” an annoyingly familiar voice interjected. Our group turned back to the room’s entrance, where we saw Monokuma himself standing in the doorway. “You didn’t think you could escape your punishment just by coming here, did you?” 

“Oh really?” Joker asked. 

“You might be tough out there, but you’re on our turf now!” Mona jeered. 

“Do not obstruct us!” Fox warned. 

“Guys, be careful!” Alibaba warned from Joker’s handbook. “I haven’t seen him in the Metaverse before, so I didn’t know, but that _thing_ is actually a Shadow.” 

“And it’s an _incredibly_ powerful one,” Morgiana added. 

“There is not time to do battle!” Cassim exclaimed. “You must make haste to the Treasure!” 

“Let me handle this,” I offered. “You guys steal the Treasure. That’s what you’re best at, right? Then let me take care of Monokuma.” 

“Ranger, he’s too strong for you to fight alone,” Morgiana asserted. 

“I don’t need to win,” I argued. “I just have to hold him off until you steal the Treasure.”

“We’ll be back for you,” Joker assured me. 

“I know you will,” I reciprocated. “Now go!” 

Joker, Fox, and Mona dashed through the secret passageway while I held my ground and stared down the headmaster. “Puhuhu, that’s awfully noble of you, but I don’t really care what order I execute you in,” Monokuma chuckled. “I’ll start with you and then make my way to the others.” 

“So, a Shadow, huh?” I asked. “I didn’t know Shadows could manifest in the real world.” 

“There’s a lot you don’t know about Shadows,” Monokuma retorted, “but I’m not exactly an ordinary Shadow either.” 

“Does that make you the ringleader for all the goons in the Palaces?” I asked. 

“Not exactly,” Monokuma answered, “but it doesn’t really matter.” 

“I guess it doesn’t,” I agreed. “Odysseus!” I beckoned as I prepared to attack the tiny Shadow, but nothing happened. 

“Puhuhu, care to try again?” Monokuma asked. 

_What… What’s going on? I can’t remember how to use my Persona…_

“Persona!” I exclaimed. Again, there was nothing. 

“Oh my, trouble getting started? Don’t worry. I hear it happens to men all the time,” Monokuma teased. “Don’t worry. I’ll wait.” 

_What’s he doing? How is he…_

“Tch, I don’t need a Persona to fight!” I shouted as I drew my fake revolver and pointed it at the bear. Monokuma held his paws behind his back as I pulled the trigger. To my horror, however, the bullet reflected off the mascot and into me. The shot pierced my gut, and I fell to my knees in shock. 

“Come on now,” Monokuma taunted. “Surely you can do better than that.” 

My vision started to blur as I stared at my own blood dripping onto the floor. _No, at this rate, he’ll catch up to the others. I need to do something. Odysseus, why can’t I use my Persona? How is he doing this?_

I blinked to clear my vision, but when my eyes opened, I was no longer in the stone room with Monokuma. Instead, I was back in the jail cell of the Velvet Room. My breathing intensified as I looked up through the bars at Igor and Lavenza, who looked at me calmly from the center of the room. “Well, you decided to return to us after all,” Igor observed. 

“Help me,” I pleaded through heavy breaths. 

“Fear not,” Lavenza said. “You would not have returned here if you were not ready.” 

“You,” Igor declared as he gestured toward me, “who would seek the Holy Grail to obtain the power of The World, you are the Ultimate Adventurer, yes?” 

“I am,” I responded before wincing and clutching my wound. 

“Then you are not simply Gale Rovere or Odysseus any longer,” Lavenza decreed. “Observe.” 

A group of four guillotines materialized around Igor’s desk. In front of each was a Persona I recognized. On the left, there was Icarus, the plane-like Persona that had belonged to Takamaru. Next to it was Shakespeare, Reiko’s Persona. On the other side of Igor’s desk was Akechi’s Persona, Robin Hood. Finally, on the far right stood Odysseus, my own Persona. 

“Your Arcana, The World, stems from the Holy Grail, which was born from the collective subconscious of all people,” Igor explained. “Therefore, you may use this connection to obtain power from the Personas of those you knew. However, you cannot claim that which belongs to another. Thus, you were unable to utilize this power while your friends remained alive.” 

 “Now, we can execute these Personas and your own in order to perform a **fusion** ,” Lavenza continued. “This should provide enough power to give birth to the real you.” 

“Please,” I pleaded again as my body continued to shake. 

“Very well,” Lavenza acquiesced. One by one, she threw sheets over the four Personas and guided them to the guillotines. Covered and chained, the Personas struggled beneath the guillotines briefly before the blades descended onto them. As the Personas were decapitated, they transformed into blue and black energy that swirled into a sphere at the center of the room. 

When I blinked again, I was back in Hachise’s Palace. No time seemed to have passed. I took a deep breath to steady myself, and then I slowly came to my feet. “Puhuhu, still going for it, eh?” Monokuma chuckled. 

“Yeah,” I replied, “and, unfortunately for you, I just remembered something.” 

“Hmm?” 

I gripped the mask over my eyes and tore it from my visage. Blood scattered from my face as healing energy washed over my body and blue flames engulfed me once again. “I am thou, thou art I…” I recited. “Thou who would seek the Holy Grail art I, and I who would seek The World am thou.” 

“What’s this?” Monokuma wondered. 

“Heed my summons, Knight of the Grail,” I beckoned, “ **Galahad**!” 

A new Persona appeared at my side. He was the same size and shape as Odysseus, but his duster and fedora were gone. The silver cuirass on his chest had extended to a full suit of armor, and his body beneath appeared to still be made of wood. A pair of wings like Icarus’s extended from his back, and a blue-and-white cape like Robin Hood’s flowed from his shoulders. Psychedelic light shifted beneath the creases in his armor like the inside of Shakespeare’s skirt. The Persona wielded a two-handed claymore that was decorated with engravings of golden feathers, and he carried a revolver in a holster on his hip. 

“My, my, I guess I was right to give you the Metaverse Navigator,” Monokuma mused. “I guessed you would show me something interesting, and I was right. I wonder if this is a Second Awakening, or maybe it’s something else entirely. In any case, allow me to return the favor.” 

Monokuma assumed a fighting stance as a blue aura surrounded him. Stones floated in the air around him like a scene from an anime, and he expanded to more than twice his size. Now, he was the same height as the mechanical Monokumas from the trial grounds—roughly the same height as me. “Now, are you ready to see my true, ultimate, and absolutely final form?” 

“By all means,” I allowed. _I don’t have to win. I just have to stall him. The more time he wastes transforming, the better…_

Instead of changing shape, however, Monokuma simply grabbed his head with his forepaws and popped it from his shoulders like a costume of a mascot at a theme park. As the Shadow discarded his head, I saw a face I recognized: Emiko Sakurai. Her own head was beneath Monokuma’s. Next, she unzipped the front of Monokuma’s body, which fell off like cheap fabric to expose her fully humanoid form. 

Though she resembled Emiko, this being had a few notable differences. For one, her formerly-pitch-black hair was now only half-black. The right half of her hair, on the other hand, was now as white as snow. Her right eye remained a natural reddish brown, but her left eye glowed a bright scarlet. Furthermore, her once-entirely-black dress was now half-white to match her hair, and the skirt on the white half was about the length of a miniskirt instead of the ankle-length fabric on the left side. The bows in her hair were also decorated with tiny Monokuma heads. 

“I get it now,” I realized with a slight chuckle. “You’re Emiko’s Shadow.” 

“Puhuhu, that’s right,” Emiko’s Shadow snickered back at me. “In this form, you can call me, ‘Emikuma.’ Surprised?” 

“No, not really,” I bluffed, “this actually makes perfect sense. Now I get how you and the mastermind stay in sync. That’s because you _are_ Emiko. I guess Hachise was right about that too.” 

“Well, if this doesn’t surprise you, let’s see what you think of this little trick.” Emikuma giggled hysterically for a moment as she raised her arms. “Come to my aid! I beseech thee save my humble life, O Black Knight, **Lancelot**!” 

To my amazement, Emiko’s Shadow summoned a Persona of her own. This being wore knightly armor like Galahad, but its armor was half-black and half-white to match its user. Beneath, there was a genderless body made entirely of metal. Gears and cogs accented its joints, and a huge wind-up key protruded from its back. One of its eyes glowed red through its helm, and in its left hand, it carried a red sword whose blade was shaped like Monokuma’s sinister eye. In its right, the Persona held a circular shield whose diameter was nearly the length of its body. The shield was perfectly reflective like an uncanny mirror, and I stared back at myself and Galahad in its shine. 

“What do you think now, ‘Ranger’?” Emikuma teased. “I confessed my love to you, after all, and I’m pretty sure you even got a boner when I did. So, what do you say? Am I doin’ it for you?” 

“Sorry,” I apologized with a grin as Galahad flourished his sword, “I can’t stand this side of you.” 

“In that case, enough with the foreplay,” Emikuma chuckled, “ _let’s give it everything we’ve got_!” 

_She reflected the shot from my revolver earlier. If guns don’t work, let’s try physical attacks._

“Strike, Galahad!” I beckoned as my fused Persona swung his sword toward the monochromatic Shadow. Lancelot parried the attack using its own sword, and Galahad followed with a flurry of slashes. As Lancelot continued to parry, I noticed the two seemed to be evenly matched. 

_That leaves Emikuma herself open._

Cracking my red whip, I dashed forward past the sword-fighting Personas and snapped the whip at Emikuma, but the Shadow ducked under the strike and reached under the long half of her skirt, from which she pulled a massive weapon. Emikuma giggled as she swung the three-meter bludgeon sideways and knocked the wind from my sails. After I finished tumbling backward, I got a good look at the weapon in question: a five-barreled hand-held rotary cannon. 

I rolled sideways to dodge an initial blast from the weapon. Its barrels rotated clockwise and clicked into place before I could evade another shot, so I moved behind one of the cognitive statues that populated the room for cover. The second blast from Emikuma’s cannon annihilated the statue and sent me flying backwards from the impact. Just as I landed on my back, Lancelot bashed Galahad out of its path with its reflective shield, and the knightly Persona leapt forward in an attempt to thrust its sword down into me. I rolled to the side to barely dodge the blade. 

_Two can play that game._

“Smite her, Galahad!” 

Galahad swung his blade sideways at Emikuma, but the Shadow effortlessly jumped over the sword and flipped in midair to land on the ceiling. Defying gravity, she stood gracefully on the stone ceiling and fired her cannon at point-blank range into Galahad’s armored helm. My Persona was knocked back by the impact, but Emikuma herself remained perfectly still despite her firearm’s illogical power. 

The Shadow pointed her gun at me again in preparation to fire, but I cracked my whip to the side and caught the arm of another nearby statue. This time, I pulled my whip back toward me to throw the statue into the air between me and Emikuma just as she fired. The statue exploded in my stead, and I raised my arm to shield my face from the debris. 

Then, something caught me from behind. Two arms, human in size and shape, had wrapped themselves around my body and bound my arms to my torso. As I turned my head, I saw the face of Kudo-sensei. Like she had done to the cognitions of our deceased classmates, Emikuma had somehow undone the petrification of the cognitive Kudo-sensei, who was grappling me on her behalf. 

I heard Emikuma’s gun click into place for its fifth shot, so I desperately turned myself around. With the cognitive Kudo-sensei in tow, I managed to position the cognition between myself and the blast. The cognition dissolved instantly under the power of the attack, and the residual force nearly snapped my spine out of place as it pushed me back to the ground. 

I heard Emikuma’s gun spinning again, but this time the firearm continued to spin. _She’s reloading._

“Galahad! Carpet bomb!” My Persona rematerialized at my behest, and a barrage of flames flew from his mechanical wings like missiles. The flames engulfed Emikuma and the stone ceiling on which she stood. Rocks fell and were blown apart as the ceiling crumbled overhead. I pulled myself to my feet and struggled to catch my breath as the dust cleared. 

Through the new hole in the ceiling, I saw a blue sky and the light of day. The hole apparently led straight to the arena at the center of the colosseum. Emikuma was now sitting atop a floating chair—the same one Monokuma had occupied when we had come here during class trials. Her legs were crossed gracefully as half of her mouth turned up into a twisted smile while the other half seemed expressionless. 

“Let’s go,” I instructed as I climbed onto my Persona’s back. The thrusters on Galahad’s wings activated, and he carried us into the air over the arena. We charged toward the floating Shadow, but her chair simply carried her away from us at an equal pace. She deterred our pursuit with cannon fire, but Galahad dodged from side to side to evade each blast. “We can’t get close,” I observed, “but guns don’t work. Let’s try another ranged attack!” 

A bow—identical to Robin Hood’s—manifested from light in Galahad’s left hand. My fused Persona pulled his sword back like an arrow and fired. The sword itself was stopped when its guard caught the bow, but two beams—one of white light and one of reddish darkness—flew from the blade and spiraled toward Emikuma. 

“Useless!” she cackled as her Persona materialized at her side. Lancelot’s reflective shield intercepted the projectiles, which came flying back at Galahad and me. We dodged the arrow of darkness, but the light projectile struck Galahad’s breastplate and sent us crashing down into the bleachers around the arena. My Persona had taken the brunt of the fall before fading from view, but I could barely feel my body. As I struggled back to my feet amidst the stone seating, I saw the familiar swarm of cognitive Monokumas, each with a spear at the ready. 

“Blow them away!” I cried as Galahad reappeared at my side. The Persona whirled his sword around us and conjured a vortex of wind that began to blow away the Monokumas. The cognitive bears braced each other, however, and through sheer force of numbers, they slowly began to press forward through the cyclone. 

 _Damn, not even Robin Hood could handle these numbers. Can I get away if I bring the barrier down long enough to fly?_ Emikuma hovered overhead with her gun at the ready. Her cocky half-smile reminded me she was ready to blast me back down into the bloodthirsty mob if I tried to escape upward. 

“Dance, Hecate!” a familiar voice cried. Pillars of flame fell from the sky and overwhelmed the crowd of cognitive Monokumas. The flames intermingled with Galahad’s cyclone, and a swirling firestorm soon burned through the ranks of each and every Monokuma nearby. When the blaze subsided, I saw the welcome face of Ann Takamaki, Panther, standing in a row of bleachers above me. 

“Panther!” I cried with joy. “You’re alive!” 

“Need a hand?” she asked with a wink as Hecate appeared at her side. 

“Thanks for the save,” I said with a smile, “but the others need you more. They’re trying to steal Hachise’s Treasure. Go through that hole, and you should be able to catch up to them!” 

The Phantom Thief jumped down a few rows and landed next to me. “Sure thing, but are you sure you can handle this?” she asked as she glanced up at Emikuma, who seemed entertained by our reunion. 

“No, but I don’t need to. The sooner you steal that Treasure, the sooner this ends.” I beckoned. “Oh, and this is yours, isn’t it?” 

I handed Panther her crimson whip, and she took it with a smile. “Where did you get this?” 

“I think you dropped it,” I guessed, “when you saved me.” 

“So you knew?” she asked. “I had to keep a low profile. I wanted to stay until you woke up, but I haven’t been in any shape to fight for days,” she admitted. “I don’t suppose you have any food?” 

“Galahad?” I asked. As the bow in his left hand dissolved into light, a quill formed in its place. Galahad drew the quill through the air, and a wave of energy washed over Panther. 

“That’s much better,” she sighed with relief. “Here.” Returning the favor, Hecate used a healing skill to repair the injuries I had sustained against Emikuma and Lancelot. “I’ll get going! Kick her butt!” 

Emikuma made no attempt to stop Panther as the latter darted down the hole in the arena in pursuit of her fellow Phantom Thieves. “You might’ve stood a chance with her help,” Emikuma lamented. “You’re not very bright, huh?” 

“I guess we’ll see,” I retorted. 

_Offensively, her Persona isn’t anything Galahad can’t handle. The Shadow itself—or rather its cannon—is the real powerhouse. Lancelot’s strength, on the other hand, is defense. That shield reflects bless and curse skills, and I’m guessing it allowed her to escape the carpet bomb unscathed too, and it’s probably how she reflected my bullet. If I want to win, I’m going to have to deal with that shield._

“Let’s fly, Galahad!” I beckoned as I returned to my Persona’s back. 

“Come on, then!” Emikuma taunted. “I want you to try everything you can until you finally succumb to _despair_!” 

Emikuma fired her cannon at us, but Galahad swerved to the side to dodge. This time, Emikuma allowed us to approach. Lancelot materialized in front of her as Galahad swung his blade at the Shadow. The monochromatic knight parried my Persona’s attack. Then, I jumped into the air off my Persona’s back. Taking my revolver from its holster, I pointed the firearm down at Emikuma. 

“Guns won’t work!” she cackled as I fired, and Lancelot moved his shield between us. The bullet from my own gun flew back into my hand and tore the revolver from my grip. 

 _We’ll see about that!_ In that same moment, Galahad materialized behind Emikuma. My Persona drew his own revolver from his hip and aimed it at Emikuma. 

“Too slow!” she taunted as her Persona’s shield moved between her and Galahad. Just as it rotated, however. I drew another gun from my side—Akechi’s silenced pistol. Holding it in my left hand (since my right had been shot), I aimed the weapon at Emikuma, whose eyes contorted strangely to stare at both my gun and my Persona’s at the same time. “No way, a pincer attack?” 

Lancelot’s shield rotated around Emikuma’s body again to deflect the bullet from my pistol. The projectile tore into my chest, but in that same moment, Galahad fired. A bullet flew through the back of Emikuma’s chair and pierced her body. The Shadow and I fell from the air. Our Personas had faded from view. I think I managed to summon mine again for just an instant before I hit the earth, but I wasn’t sure exactly what had happened. 

When I came to, I was on the ground. I had fallen back through the hole in the floor of the arena into the room with the petrified cognitions. My blurry vision made out the shape of a person. Emikuma was limping through the secret passageway. A thick trail of pink blood flowed from behind her as she clutched her abdomen. “This isn’t right…” I heard her mutter to herself. 

_Oh no you don’t… I won’t let you interfere with the others…_

I reached upward and found a handhold—the outstretched palm of the statue of a woman, whom I assumed to be Hachise’s own Fujikawa-sensei. I pulled myself to my feet and held my injured palm over my bleeding chest. I dragged myself through the room, using each statue as a crutch with my good hand. My determination carried me to the passageway. I felt like I was barely moving, but somehow, I was still catching up to her. 

“Get back!” Emikuma shrieked as she turned around. Lancelot suddenly appeared behind her and swung its broadsword at my neck. There was a clang of metal. My own Persona had appeared. Galahad parried the attack and, in doing so, disarmed Lancelot. The black knight’s sword flew into the room behind me and landed point-first in the stone floor, next to Emikuma’s cannon. With his next motion, Galahad stabbed Lancelot’s other forearm, the one holding the shield, and pierced the shield from the back. My Persona jammed Lancelot’s shield and arm into the adjacent wall. 

Emikuma fell to her knees. The pink blood was now overflowing from her chest and mouth as she coughed furiously. Lancelot struggled helplessly to free itself, but Galahad’s blade kept it pinned. “Well,” I remarked halfheartedly as I gripped Akechi’s pistol with my good hand, “we gave it everything we had.” 

“Stop,” Emikuma pleaded, “you can’t do this. I’m Emiko’s Shadow. If you kill me, anything could happen. You’ll trigger a cognitive shutdown! That’s the same as killing Emiko! You’ll be a murderer.” 

 “Thanks to you, I’m already a murderer,” I reminded her as I pointed my gun at her head. Galahad mirrored my motion as he pressed the handgun from his holster to Lancelot’s helm. “Besides, I just found out Ann’s still alive. That means Charlotte couldn’t have performed her forbidden action, which, as you know, was discovering a dead body. If Ann's alive, that means Haruki's attack didn't actually kill her. She was bleeding from the neck when he threw her into her room, sure, but she wasn't dead. Regardless, you poisoned Charlotte anyway, and you put one of your doubles in Ann's room in the place of the real thing so we wouldn’t notice. That makes you one of the blackened after all.” 

“Puhuhu…” Emikuma chuckled through the blood in her mouth. “Your face is so cute right now, Gale. It’s a face full of despair. I really, truly love this side of you.” 

“Shut up,” I winced. My hand was shaking as she smiled at me. This was the same smile—the same one she gave me before she was dragged away. My heart was breaking. “Emiko Sakurai, the Ultimate Lucky Student, or should I call you the Ultimate Despair? It’s **_punishment time_**.” Two gunshots rang in unison. Emikuma—Monokuma—dissolved alongside Lancelot. My own Persona faded. I fell. 

A buzzing sounded in my pocket. “Ranger! Ranger, can you hear me? Joker and the others got Hachise’s Treasure! The Palace is starting to come apart! Things didn’t go as planned, so they can’t make it back to you! They’ve got another escape route, but you need to get out! I got the Meta-Nav back on your handbook, so use it to return to the real world! Hurry!” 

The ground shook beneath me, and the ceiling began to crack overhead. I reached into my pocket and retrieved my handbook. I held the device in front of me. I could see Alibaba, Morgiana, and Cassim. A boy was with them now—a blond teen about my age—and a woman with ash-brown hair alongside an older man with a ponytail. I pressed my thumb to the screen, but the app closed. As I looked at my e-Handbook’s screen, there was no sign of the Meta-Nav. It was gone. “Phantom Thieves of Hearts,” I murmured to myself, “I knew you could do it.” 

A stone fell from the ceiling. That was the end. 


	14. Chapter 6.1: The Odd 1S

I was running like a goddamn madman through the halls of the boat. I pushed Miaya along despite the hole in my arm. For all I knew, a horde of those bloodthirsty Monokumas was stampeding after us, and there was no way in hell I was leaving her to contend with them. She barely held on for dear life as we descended another staircase at top speed. We were on the 4th floor now. This 1 was a straight shot. 

Hachise was fending off a group of Monokumas coming from the stairs ahead of her. A precise shot downed 1 of the bastards that came jumping at her ahead of the rest, but she unloaded the last of her ammo on the rest of the group. The gunshots took out 3 more of ‘em, but the bastards just kept coming. Hachise tossed the deadweight gun and took 1 of those crazy aerosol bombs from under her shirt. That blew the rest of ‘em to hell, but it knocked her on her ass too. 

Perfect, we could catch up while her head was spinning. I pushed Miaya forward as fast as I could down the hall. Her wheels carried us more than my feet once we picked up some momentum. Hachise gripped her temples and shook her head before turning to face us. “Here we come, bitch, ready or not!” I screamed. 

“You won’t stop me!” she screeched. In a swift motion, she yanked the bandage off her left forearm to reveal a concealable mechanism that had been wrapped around her arm. She pulled a cord on the mechanism with her teeth. 

“Shit, no!” I cursed as I dug my heel into the ground and spun Miaya’s wheelchair sideways. The sudden turn put me in the path of a barrage of needles that flew from the mechanism, and those little shits dug into my back like claws. My stunt might have shielded Miaya, but the motion crashed her speeding wheelchair, and we both went tumbling onto the floor. 

“Serves you right,” Hachise chuckled through heavy breaths before using her inhaler and making her way downstairs. 

“You okay?” I asked Miaya as I came to my feet. She nodded her head as I helped her back into her chair. She reached down for Monomi, who’d been knocked onto the floor in the crash, but I noticed something. The thing twitched all of a sudden. “Wait. Don’t!” I shouted as I suddenly pushed Miaya’s wheelchair over again by tackling it elbow-first. 

Monomi, that stupid fuckin’ robot that Monokuma had made, was a traitor. The little bitch had grown 2 sets of claws—just like those bigger Monokumas—and tried to cut Miaya open. Its eyes were glowing red. The claws missed Miaya, but they tore through me. Rather, they tore through the side of my head. I couldn’t feel it—too much adrenaline I guess, but there was something coming down the left side of my face. It felt like I was crying. 

I drew my switchblade and jammed it into the heart of that little bitch before it could even land. I rolled on top of the thing, and I felt like I shouted something, but I could barely hear myself. It kept wriggling around with its clawed hands, but I just kept stabbing it. As long as I kept it pinned, its stupid arms were too short to even reach me. 

Eventually, the damn thing shut off. I took 1 second to catch my breath before helping Miaya back into her chair. The poor thing looked horrified. She just kept staring at me for a while. “What?” I asked. “I got somethin’ in my teeth?” Shaking, she silently pointed to the floor. There was a severed ear on the ground that had a piercing in its lobe just like 1 of mine. “Gross,” I spat. 

I pushed Miaya down the last flight of stairs. Hachise was already down there. She was walking slower now, and there was blood dripping from her left arm where the hand had been severed, but there were plenty of broken Monokumas strewn throughout the hall that looked a hell of a lot worse than she did. “Almost there!” she yelled at herself as she fell into a wall for a moment and used her inhaler again. “Keep it together!”

“You stop right at that fuckin’ coordinate!” I shouted as I pushed Miaya forward at top speed again. 

“You’re persistent,” she growled through her braces as she pushed herself off the wall, “but no one is more persistent than me!” 

Hachise threw herself through the door to the Ultimate Physicist's lab, but just as she did, 5 swords sprung out of the doorway. Because she went through at an angle instead of walking normally, most of them missed her, but 1 of them hit the last part of her body to go through: her right leg. 

The appendage was severed completely just above the knee. She screamed in pain as she fell down into the room. I could see through the open door now, and there was something new: a large device on a table at the center of the lab. That was the bomb. “Monokuma!” Hachise screamed. “I’ll kill you! I’ll fucking kill you! I’ll kill everyone!” 

Pulling herself forward with her elbows, the Ultimate Survivor crawled inch by inch toward the bomb. I raced up to the doorway, but the swords were still blocking the path. Miaya and I couldn’t get through. “Hachise! Stop!” I shouted. “You’re letting Monokuma win! You’re letting Emiko win! This is what they want!” 

“Shut up!” she shrieked. “I won’t let them get away with this! I don’t care if we die!” 

Miaya tried typing something into her handbook, but the device powered down. Frustrated, she tapped ferociously on the screen a few more times before throwing it into a wall. Hachise pulled herself onto the table with the bomb. I gritted my teeth. She wouldn’t listen to me, but Miaya couldn’t—

There was that sound again. That horrible sound was back. I clamped my hands over my head and fell into the wall. It was that airhorn. Miaya blew the damn thing. Hachise hesitated. She was propping herself on the table. She was within arm’s reach of the bomb, but for just a second, she looked back. Miaya mouthed something then. We couldn’t hear it, but we could read it on her lips, and we could see it in her eyes. “You’re better than this,” she said. 1 simple sentence was all it was. 

Hachise collapsed. She fell against the side of the table. Tears were streaming down her face. She reached for her inhaler and pressed it to her lips. A pool of blood was accumulating around her. Her breathing was heavy. She was staring at nothing. After a long moment, her eye closed, and her hyperventilation stopped. 

“Maybe you’re right,” a feminine voice said. Emiko, the bitch behind this whole thing, my own goddamn classmate, was now standing in the room. She’d appeared out of nowhere. “Maybe she is better than this.” The gothic bitch took her sweet time—step by fucking step—sashaying to the bomb at the center of the room. “But I’m not.” 

“Is everyone but me crazy?” I shouted. “What is with you bitches and wanting to blow yourselves the fuck up?” 

“This bomb is an EMP,” Emiko explained with a chuckle. “All of the bombs on the _S.S. Titanokuma-A_ are ready to blow at any moment. Electric stabilizers hold nitroglycerin cores steady against the swaying of the boat, but if an EMP shuts those down, the bombs go off.” 

“What difference does that make?” I yelled. 

“It would be slow. We’d sink to the bottom of the ocean—hundreds of kilometers from land with no hope of rescue,” Emiko mused. “When I thought of that, it sounded so delightfully despairful…” Emiko’s smile contorted into a wide grin. Her eyes seemed to swirl around in her head. “I wonder if anyone could save me. No one could possibly know where we are. My luck might finally run out!” 

Emiko reached toward the EMP, but she flinched. Something hurt her. She winced again and gripped her head. “No! What? What’s happening? This…” She wailed in agony and started wrestling with herself on the floor. Her eyes, ears, and nose were dripping with blood. 

“What the fuck is going on?” I asked. Miaya’s silence was my only answer. 

After convulsing for about a minute, she stopped. Her entire body stopped. She wasn’t even breathing. In that moment, The World stopped too. 

* * *

 

The next day, I was in the top floor of the Ultimate Adventurer's lab with my classmates. Miaya was typing away at a keyboard from a chair. “Thanks,” a picture of Usami said on the screen as a text bubble featuring a happy emoji appeared next to her mouth, “with your help, we finally managed to get through security!” 

“No problem!” said a short redhead on the screen. She was one of the Phantom Thieves who had been trying to user her technical knowhow to help us for a while. “We’re borrowing a family of servers from Okumura Foods, so we should be able to brute-force the rest of the security in another day or so.” 

“Think we can really drive this hunk of junk?” I asked. 

“Not sure,” Ren replied, “but it’s our best chance.” 

“With the mastermind and Monokuma gone, we have free reign of the vessel,” Yusuke added. “I believe it is only a matter of time before we are able to return to civilization.” 

“How’s your wound?” Ann asked. The blonde had popped back up with Ren and Yusuke yesterday. Apparently, after her neck was cut by Haruki, she got thrown into her room just like we’d thought, but she wasn’t dead yet. Charlotte busted down the door after her. The Ultimate Cheerleader was poisoned, but her e-Handbook had one of those crazy apps on it. Ann used the app to go to a Palace, where she used her freaky meta-magic to summon some goddess to heal her, but Monokuma deleted the app as soon as it appeared, so Ann was stuck there. Then, that damn bear put a look-alike body in Ann’s place in order to justify poisoning Charlotte. 

“It’s fine,” I said as I swatted her hand away from the bandages on my head. 

“You’re certainly charming,” she sighed sarcastically. Then, the Ultimate Model went to Hachise, who was now sitting in the wheelchair Miaya had been using. The bitch was breathing, but she’d been practically braindead since yesterday. Ann fed her some sweets since her blood sugar had tanked from blood loss. 

“So…” I started. “What happened to Emiko back there, _he_ did it, huh?” 

“It must’ve been him,” Morgana said. The talking cat had been grooming himself nearby. “What you described was exactly like a mental shutdown, but I don’t know who else could’ve caused it.” 

“I fail to understand how his battle with Monokuma could have resulted in Emiko’s mental shutdown,” Yusuke mused. 

“Honestly, I don’t get it either,” Morgana admitted, “but it had to have been him.” 

“He’s really gone, too?” I asked. 

“Hachise’s Palace is gone,” Morgana explained, “and none of the rest of us have one. I couldn’t even get to the remnants of Mementos. There’s nowhere he could be.” 

“Man, he sure does like dying,” I groaned. 

“I’m sure he would’ve come back to us if he could,” Usami said from the screen after Miaya typed something into her keyboard. “He may be gone, but he saved us. If he hadn’t caused that mental shutdown, Emiko would’ve…” 

“Let us not dwell on it,” Yusuke suggested with a somber tone. “We have lost more than anyone could bear, but the worst is behind us now.” 

“Yeah, for the 1st time since we set foot on this boat,” I replied, “I’m startin’ to feel **hope**.” 


	15. Epilogue: To Be or Not to Be Continued...

The vision came to me like a dream, or maybe it was a distant memory. 

A blonde middle-schooler sat alone in a dark room illuminated by dozens of televisions. The devices had been stolen from a nearby used electronics store, whose gagged owner had been tied to a coat rack and deprived of both food and fingernails. The girl’s eyes darted in every direction as she analyzed each frame of fast-forwarding footage from dozens of security cameras simultaneously. Without taking her eyes from the screens, she flipped open her bedazzled cell phone and dialed a number. 

“Monaca,” she exclaimed when the receiver answered her calls, “I’m going over the footage now, and let me just say: The facilities and prototypes your company provided were  _ totes _ amaze-balls!” 

“I’m so glad you liked them, Big Sis!” a little girl cheered from the phone. 

“What happened to the employees who made all this?” the middle-schooler asked. 

“They died when their plane crashed on the way to a technical conference in Germany,” the little girl chuckled. “It was really quite tragic.” 

“Be a sweetheart and patch us through to the others,” the middle-schooler said as her voice suddenly dropped and she donned a pair of glasses. 

The phone rang again. “Sis?” another girl asked. “What’s going on? I’m kind of in the middle of something.” Automatic gunfire rang in the background as a man’s dying scream suddenly erupted from the phone. 

“The Killing School Cruise showed promise, but ultimately, Emiko still failed,” the stern middle-schooler lectured. 

“Oh, so that’s what this is about,” the new girl realized. 

“Yes, and the Metaverse proved insufficient for plunging the participants into despair,” the middle-schooler decreed as her glasses fell from her head and she suddenly donned a crown. “We shall require a different means by which to manipulate the hearts of others.” 

“Are you sure, Big Sis?” the little girl asked again. “I thought the cognitive psience worked wonders on Big Sis Emiko! With Miss Isshiki’s research and the app from Akechi’s phone, we even pulled her Shadow into the real world and made it look like—” 

“No…” the middle-schooler lamented as her crown was replaced by a number of mushrooms. “It’d never work…” 

“If you say so,” the other girl conceded before another set of gunshots sounded. 

“Perhaps we should ask our observer what she believes!” the middle-schooler decreed as her crown replaced the mushrooms again. “What say ye, knave?”

“I think you’re right,” Usami’s voice sounded through the phone. “Of the killing game’s survivors, the ones who frequently went to the Metaverse are still full of hope. The ones who remained in the real world, however, were positively overflowing with despair.” 

“The only Metaverse user who was in despair was Akechi-kun…” the blonde analyst groaned as the mushrooms sprouted on her head again, “and he was already full of despair when we found him…” 

“What happened to Big Bro Akechi’s phone?” the youngest voice asked. “We could always make more copies of its Meta-Nav to test the effects of the app and despair on a larger pool.”

“Emiko took it as insurance…” the middle-schooler droned. “The ship’s mainframe had the data for all the copies we made, and now I’ve been cut off from its network… Akechi’s phone is probably lost at sea somewhere… We’ve got zilch… It’s hopeless…” 

"Then Emiko's gone too?"  the voice on the battlefield guessed. "That's too bad. Her Shadow's ability to erase memories was promising."

“What should we do now, Big Sis?” the little girl asked. 

“Nothing!” the middle-schooler squealed with glee as she jumped from her seat and hung up her phone. She stared down at a red-eyed app on her phone and smiled widely. “I’m sure a fateful encounter is waiting just around the corner, but until then, who cares about all this cognitive psience bullcrap?” The middle-schooler deleted the app and closed her phone. “Still,” she mused as her eyes returned to the dozens of televisions, “this killing game we came up with looks pretty fun. I may have to try it myself sometime.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to sincerely thank everyone for reading Personganronpa! It took me about a year to write, so all the support has been very appreciated! I know I'm a week late posting this epilogue, but I hope it was worth the wait. In case you're curious about some of the unsolved mysteries of Personganronpa, I want to announce that I am planning to write Personganronpa 2! I don't know when it will be released yet, but I'm hoping to start posting it within the next year or two. In fact, next weekend's installment (Chapter 16/16 by AO3's standards) is a teaser that is meant to tie the events of Personganronpa into Personganronpa 2. If there are any unsolved mysteries you'd like to know about, or if you have any other requests or suggestions for Personganronpa 2, please feel free to leave them in the comments! ^_^


	16. Chapter X: Of Mice and/or Hanged Men

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter X is a brief extra chapter that serves as a sort of teaser to tie the events of Personganronpa into the events of the upcoming Personganronpa 2.

The helicopter's blades sliced through the air overhead. The wind's cries of pain reverberated through the aircraft's interior. The vehicle's inhabitants sat in silence on either side of its interior for a while. A middle-aged man with graying sideburns and a grayish cap sighed. A grade-school-aged teen with dark hair under a red cap fidgeted on a handheld gaming console next to him. Across the way, there sat a colossal man with dark skin and rippling muscles; his black hair had been shaved to nearly nothing. "Well, aren't we chipper?" the middle-aged man sighed again. 

"I'm about as hopeful as I can be considering the circumstances," the goliath replied gruffly. 

"You really think your daughter's still out there?" the graying man asked. 

"If there's a chance," the goliath responded, "I'll take it." 

"What's she got to do with it?" the younger boy spat after pocketing his video game. 

"Don't you remember anything, brat?" the middle-aged man scolded. "Future Foundation's satellites found signs of survivors on a deserted island around where their ship went missing." 

"My name's not Brat," the teen snapped back. "It's Shinya." 

"It's nice to formally meet you, Shinya," the gentle giant greeted. "I'm Chosuke Kinoshita." 

"Your daughter's one of the survivors?" Shinya confirmed. 

"Unlike Mr. Iwai," the colossus responded with a glance to Shinya's benchmate, "I'm willing to hope as much." 

"Whatever," Iwai retorted, "Future Foundation can't get to the island 'til we establish an outpost on the coast. 2nd Division's givin' all they've got, but they're outta supplies. That's where we come in. Sonosuke says bring munitions to to the coast. I bring munitions to the coast. It's that simple." 

"Are you with the 9th Division too, Cho?" Shinya asked the goliath. 

"No, I'm actually with the 13th Division," Chosuke clarified, "but I have a personal stake in this mission."

"What a ragtag crew this is," Iwai groaned. 

"There might be a problem," another voice interjected as two people returned from the cockpit. These two were Hope's Peak alumni borrowed from the Ultimate Strike Team: the Ultimate Marksman and the Ultimate Archer. The pair carried a sniper rifle and a bow, respectively, strapped over their shoulders. "Takadai radioed Ishimaru's squad," the Ultimate Archer continued, "but we didn't get a response." 

"Think it's interference?" Iwai asked. 

"There does seem to be a storm brewing," Chosuke noted as he glanced outside the chopper. 

"It's possible," the Ultimate Marksman admitted, "but we shouldn't count on it." 

"Will we be alright if there's a storm?" Shinya wondered. 

"Hey now, give me some credit!" the pilot called from the cockpit. "Back when I was at Hope's Peak, they called me the Ultimate Pilot! I haven't lost my touch yet!" 

"Easy, old-timer," Iwai laughed, "that cockiness might be contagious." 

"Shush," the Ultimate Marksman interrupted. The passengers fell silent. A few long moments passed. "Was I just imagining it?" 

Suddenly, a strong wind seemed to rattle the helicopter to its steely bones. Iwai, Shinya, and the others gripped whatever they could to keep from being toppled over. "What the hell, Takadai!" Iwai shouted to the cockpit. "Is this turbulence?" 

"Negative!" Takadai replied. "It's artificial! Something's trying to blow us down!" 

The Ultimate Marksman pressed his back to the helicopter's sliding door before opening it slightly to get a clearer look past the raindrop-covered windows. "Incoming Monobeast!" he shouted with newfound urgency in his voice. Shinya glanced outside the door under the marksman and saw a massive, robotic bird flying toward their aircraft. The mecha resembled a violet eagle whose talons had been replaced with rotary guns. 

"It's coming in too hot to evade!" Takadai warned. "Brace yourselves!" Just like that, the pilot killed the engine. In just a moment, the vehicle lost momentum, and it began to plummet to the ground. Shinya and Chosuke screamed in panic for a moment, but the sudden descent gave the helicopter enough speed to evade the swoop of the oncoming Monobeast. 

Something clanged against the roof of the vehicle as Takadai restarted his machine and attempted to stabilize its descent. "What hit us?" Shinya asked as he regained his composure. 

"I don't know!" Takadai admitted as he frantically stabilized the helicopter. "Someone check!" 

Chosuke stood up from his seat and opened the sliding door on his side of the helicopter to look. As soon as he did, however, the goliath's head fell from his broad shoulders. Blood splattered across the vehicle's interior as razor-sharp steel, fast as the wind, reflected light through the shimmering raindrops. Soaked in blood, a white-clad swordswoman with long, silver hair and an emotionless expression moved into the helicopter. 

"Remnant of Despair!" the Ultimate Archer realized as she immediately fired an arrow at the intruder. The swordswoman cut the projectile from the air, however, and she continued her approach more swiftly than the human eye. Iwai pointed a shotgun at the swordswoman, but she pushed the barrel of the gun upward with one hand and thrust her sword forward with the other. The shotgun fired harmlessly into the ceiling while the sword pierced Iwai's heart. 

At this moment, however, the Ultimate Marksman was pointing a pistol at the swordswoman's head. The swordswoman's blade had already left Iwai's chest and was pointed at the marksman's throat, but not even she could outpace a bullet at point-blank range. The swordswoman froze. "Drop your weapon!" the marksman insisted. "How many of you are there?" 

The swordswoman only smirked in reply. Suddenly, a handful of blasts erupted against the helicopter. "We're hit!" Takadai declared. The sudden rumbling moved the marksman's gun away from the swordswoman's head for only a brief moment, and in that instant, she tossed her katana sideways straight through the back of the pilot's chair. 

"Shit!" Shinya shouted as the helicopter began to spin out of control, and the swordswoman jumped through the door Chosuke had opened. Moments later, the helicopter crashed. 

Shinya pulled himself from the helicopter's wreckage. Luckily, they had not fallen far after Takadai's previous descent. Shinya's right arm was broken, and his head was bleeding badly, but he could walk, and he was alive. The Ultimate Marksman and Ultimate Archer had already found their footing by the time the teen had pulled himself from the wreckage; their injuries were less substantial by far. Nonetheless, the situation around them was bleak. 

The three were surrounded on three sides by Remnants of Despair. On one side, there was the swordswoman who had killed half their team in the blink of an eye. Thanks to her, the mission was already a failure. The chopper's supplies weren't going any farther. On another side, there was a short man with blonde hair, an eyepatch, and a pinstripe suit. Behind him was a mob of suited gangsters wearing Monokuma heads. The four in front were armed with anti-air firepower that had undoubtedly been used to strike the helicopter moments before. On the final side, there was the avian Monobeast, which cawed mechanically as its rotary guns aimed at the survivors. Atop the mecha sat a pink-haired man in a yellow jumpsuit; he was apparently the creature's controller. 

"You still alive?" the Ultimate Marksman asked Shinya as the teen limped toward him and the Ultimate Archer. 

"For now," Shinya retorted with a grimace as he drew a pistol and pointed it at the swordswoman. 

"One for each of us," the Ultimate Archer observed as she pointed her bow and arrow at the pinstriped man and his mob, "how thoughtful..." 

"Well, if we can't deliver the munitions," the Ultimate Marksman thought aloud as he armed his sniper rifle and stared at the avian Monobeast, "the least we can do is lighten the 2nd Division's load." 


	17. Report Cards

** Shigekazu Kudo **

Name: Shigekazu Kudo

Height: 5’11” (181 cm.)

Weight: 165 lbs. (75 kg.)

Chest: 32” (82 cm.)

Special Ability: Ultimate Architect

 

**Gale Rovere**

Name: Gale Rovere

Height: 5’9” (175 cm.)

Weight: 137 lbs. (62 kg.)

Chest: 31” (79 cm.)

Special Ability: Ultimate Adventurer 

 

** Ren Amamiya **

Name: Ren Amamiya 

Height: 5’9” 175 cm.)

Weight: ???

Chest: ???

Special Ability: Ultimate Phantom Thief of Hearts

 

**Yusuke Kitagawa**

Name: Yusuke Kitagawa

Height: 5’11” (181 cm.)

Weight: 139 lbs. (63 kg.)

Chest: ???

Special Ability: Ultimate Artist 

 

** Noise **

Name: Shoichi Noizu

Height: 5’8” (172 cm.)

Weight: 133 lbs. (60 kg.)

Chest: 30” (76 cm.)

Special Ability: Ultimate Mathematician

 

**Haruki Haruharu**

Name: Haruki Haruharu

Height: 5’6” (168 cm.)

Weight: 117 lbs. (53 kg.)

Chest: 29” (74 cm.)

Special Ability: Ultimate Circus Performer

 

** Shiro Hatori **

Name: Shiro Hatori

Height: 5’10” (178 cm.)

Weight: 141 lbs. (64 kg.)

Chest: 31” (80 cm.)

Special Ability: Ultimate Moral Compass

 

**Takamaru Kazeryu**

Name: Takamaru Kazeryu

Height: 5’5” (165 cm.)

Weight: 155 lbs. (70 kg.)

Chest: 33” (84 cm.)

Special Ability: Ultimate Pilot

 

** Kagami Jushichi **

Name: Kagami Jushichi

Height: 5’3” (160 cm.)

Weight: 113 lbs. (51 kg.)

Chest: 30” (76 cm.)

Special Ability: Ultimate Physicist

 

** Ann Takamaki **

Name: Ann Takamaki

Height: 5’6” (168 cm.)

Weight: ???

Chest: ???

Special Ability: Ultimate Model

 

** Hifumi Togo **

Name: Hifumi Togo

Height: ???

Weight: ???

Chest: ???

Special Ability: Ultimate Shogi Player

 

** Lucille Wridge **

Name: Lucille Wridge

Height: 5’8” (173 cm.)

Weight: 115 lbs. (52 kg.)

Chest: 32” (82 cm.)

Special Ability: Ultimate Prosecuting Attorney

 

** Hikari Yamamoto **

Name: Hikari Yamamoto

Height: 5’6” (168 cm.)

Weight: 130 lbs. (59 kg.)

Chest: 31” (79 cm.)

Special Ability: Ultimate Student Council President

 

** Reiko Izanami **

Name: Reiko Izanami

Height: 6’2” (188 cm.)

Weight: 146 lbs. (66 kg.)

Chest: 34” (86 cm.)

Special Ability: Ultimate Thespian 

 

** Charlotte Kinoshita **

Name: Charlotte Kinoshita

Height: 6’7” (200 cm.)

Weight: 245 lbs. (111 kg.)

Chest: 44” (111 cm.)

Special Ability: Ultimate Cheerleader

 

** Emiko Sakurai **

Name: Emiko Sakurai

Height: 5’4” (162 cm.)

Weight: 119 lbs. (54 kg.)

Chest: 32” (81 cm.)

Special Ability: Ultimate Lucky Student

 

** Miaya Gekkogahara **

Name: Miaya Gekkogahara

Height: 5’0” (153 cm.)

Weight: 91 lbs. (41 kg.)

Chest: 30” (75 cm.)

Special Ability: Ultimate Therapist

 

**Hachise Kurotsuki**

Name: Hachise Kurotsuki

Height: 5’2” (158 cm.)

Weight: 113 lbs. (51 kg.)

Chest: 29” (74 cm.)

Special Ability: Ultimate Survivor


End file.
